


Sengoku High

by CamilleNicole



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis, YuYu Hakusho
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-21
Updated: 2013-03-21
Packaged: 2017-12-06 02:15:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 22,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/730449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CamilleNicole/pseuds/CamilleNicole
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sae is a normal student at Sengoku High - well, as normal as someone can be when their best friends are nicknamed the Samurai Prince (Echizen Ryoma) and Ice Princess (Tachibana Yuniko). This story focuses on the growth of three childhood friends through their experiences in high school. Watch Ryoma change from a tennis-sexual brat to a somewhat normal teenager who falls in love with the last person he'd expect to fall for. Join Yuniko as she tries to forgive all those who have supposedly wronged her and become the outgoing teenage girl she was always meant to become. Most importantly, we see Sae grow into her own skin and find her true self as she helps her best friends go through the ups and downs of high school.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Memories

**Author's Note:**

> Character Information: http://skyway-avenue.com/writing/fanfiction/SH/character_info.php  
> Romaji to English Translations: http://skyway-avenue.com/writing/fanfiction/SH/translations.php
> 
>  **DISCLAIMER:** I do not own any recognizable character, place, or landmark unless otherwise stated.

_ **Sae** _

Tears were falling down my face as I stared at an old photo from my high school days. It wasn't just some random yearbook photo, of course. Those wouldn't make me cry. This was a photo from my freshman year. A photo of me...and of Kazuma, together. We looked happy. That's how we always looked when we were together.  
  
 _But all of it was lies._  
  
As I stared at the photo, I said to myself, "Why did I ever think the two of us were in love? He was a senior who was about to graduate, and I was just some stupid little freshman who just so happened to test into the senior English class. I was just a nerd being used by the popular kids to cover for them whenever they did something that was borderline illegal. I even did their fucking homework. How the hell did I fall for their scheme?"  
  
I tried to sound happy, but it was obvious that it was a lie. Freshman year might have been absolutely horrible because of the popular kids, but there were some good times as well - most of them happening _after_ he graduated, of course. However, the story wouldn't have much impact if we didn't talk about all of it.

_**Ryoma** _

Sae's looking at old photos again. It's probably that old photo of that idiot Kuwabara. I don't understand why she won't throw it out, but if she wants to keep it - then who am I to stop her? She stuck by me despite the fact that most people would have ditched me by now. Sakuno left as soon as that stupid Kintaro confessed that he liked her, and that was in our second year of middle school and played a part in me choosing to go to Sengoku rather than continue at Seigaku's sister high school like I had originally planned. Even Tomoka abandoned me for fucking Horio in our third year; this is the girl used to call me "Ryoma-sama" for kami's sake, and she chose Horio who couldn't even serve a tennis ball correctly. The same Horio who lost to the guy I creamed when I was only 12!  
  
Shit! I got carried away again. I sighed in frustration which caused Sae to turn her head towards me. She asked, "What's wrong Ryoma?"  
  
I shook my head, "It's nothing, Sae. Just remembering some stuff I usually don't like to remember."  
  
She chuckled, "Ryuzaki and Osakada again, right?"  
  
I nodded, "Yeah."  
  
Sae laughed, "Don't worry, it gets better."  
  
I smirked at her, "I don't think you can talk. Last I checked, you still weren't over idiot Kuwabara!"  
  
She pouted, "So?! I'm a girl, we're supposed to be more emotional than boys. We're meant to remember these things for years until we meet someone that helps us forget."  
  
I smiled at her last statement, "What would you do if that someone was right in front of you?"  
  
She widened her eyes at me, "Uh...."  
  
I laughed at her, "I'm joking, Sae." When I finished laughing, I paused to catch my breath. Then I asked her, "So what were you thinking about?"  
  
She replied, "Well..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost all of the chapters after this will be a flashback of Ryoma and Sae's high school days.


	2. First Day

** _Sae_ **

I was rushing to get ready for my first day of high school, since I was already running late as a result of accidentally sleeping through my alarm. I really need to get a louder alarm to wake myself up in the mornings! If this keeps up, I'll probably be late everyday. I don't even do anything to make myself tired. How the hell did Ryoma actually get to his classes on time during middle school?

Ten minutes later, I was ready and about to walk out the door when my cellphone vibrated inside my pocket. I took it out and checked to see who could possibly be sending me a text message right now. I didn't even need to look at the sender's name to know who it was.

_Running late again, Sae? Mada mada dane._

I growled and typed out a reply, " _Shut up, you baka!_ "

Once I replied to Ryoma's text message, I ran to my new school - Sengoku High. I squealed in excitement. I would finally be going to school with Ryoma and Yuniko again. I was stuck at Ginka for middle school since my father didn't want me known as "The Viper's baby cousin" while Ryoma attended Seishun Gakuen - Seigaku, for short - and Yuniko attended Rikkaidai Fuzoku because her mother felt that she and Souta would be better off there. But, now, we'll be attending school together again. We haven't gone to the same school since fourth grade!

 ** _\---- Begin Flashback ----_**   
"I'm moving." These were the worst words that could have possibly come out of Ryoma's mouth.   
  
I whined, "What do you mean, Ryo-chan?! I thought we'd be together forever."   
  
He replied, "It's my baka oyaji's idea. He thinks there's a better tennis environment there."   
  
Yuniko yelled at him, "Well, tell him you don't wanna go! Sae-chan's crying now!"   
  
Ryoma yelled back, "I did tell him I didn't wanna leave! He didn't listen and kaa-san already prepared everything."   
**_\---- End Flashback ----_**

I frowned at my memory of that day. After that day, Yuniko seemed to absolutely hate Ryoma. No matter how many times I told her that I wasn't mad at Ryoma for leaving, she just wouldn't budge. Her dislike of him only seemed to grow deeper when Ryoma won the national tennis championship for Seigaku during his first year. She believed that Rikkaidai Fuzoku deserved that win and that he cheated - which he didn't. I actually asked him about it and he said that he didn't even realize that he won until the referee announced the final score. He was supposedly too caught up in having fun playing tennis against Rikkaidai's captain.   
  
When I finally snapped out of my thoughts, I arrived at the school and saw Ryoma waving at me - something he doesn't really do a lot - with Yuniko reluctantly standing next to him. I ran towards them and screamed, "Ohayou!"   
  
Ryoma just smirked and said, "Let's go, the morning assembly is about to start and you still don't know what class you're in!" He started walking towards the entrance of the school when he finished his statement.   
  
I pouted and grabbed Yuniko's hand while screaming at him, "Wait for us!!!"

_ **Yuniko** _

The three of us were standing in front of the notice board that had the class rosters posted. I was frantically searching for my name when I heard Sae scream, "Kya!!! I'm in the same class as Ryo-chan!"   
  
Ryoma muttered under his breath, "I really hope we aren't stuck with a bunch of fangirls." Despite my large dislike for him, I still knew him quite well and I could tell he was about to say something more before he was dragged away by Sae.   
  
I sighed. I didn't even get to ask which class they were placed in. I looked back at the board and finally found my class assignment: _1-C_. I looked for their class assignments as well since I never got the chance to ask. When I found it, I scowled because the two of them had been placed in _1-A_. I can understand Sae since she's practically a genius, but it made no sense for Ryoma to be there.   
  
My mental rant was interrupted when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and growled at them, "What?!" When I saw the person's face, I regretted yelling at them. Why did I regret it? Because it was Yukimura Seiichi!   
  
He chuckled at my reaction, "Is that anyway to treat your senpai?" He paused for a few seconds and then asked, "Do you need help finding your class?"   
  
I shook my head, "No, I've got a map."   
  
He smiled at me, "Okay, then. I'm just going to go to my class to work on today's training schedule. I'm captain of the tennis team this year."   
  
He had already started walking towards his class, but I smiled back and replied anyway, "Good luck. My childhood friend, who I don't really talk to that much anymore, is most likely going to join."   
  
He turned his head towards me and said, "I'll be looking forward to it, Tachibana-chan.

_ **Ryoma** _

Sae dragged me to class. Aside from that, I can't say much about what happened before class started since I fell asleep once I sat down and laid my head down on the desk. Judging by what the board said, our first subject was English, anyway. That subject was so easy that I'd be more likely to fail if I actually paid attention to what the sensei says.   
  
Unfortunately, sensei didn't agree with me since I was woken up by his loud voice, "Echizen, write the answer to number five on the board now!"   
  
I scowled at him and then looked at my textbook that Sae must have opened for me before going up to the board and writing the answer down. Once I wrote down the answer, I quickly looked over it to make sure I answered the right question - and to stall for time since sensei might try to make me do another problem since I did this one so fast. After enough time passed, I walked back to my seat and sat down. Sensei looked over my answer and his eyes twitched before he finally said, "Good answer."   
  
I smirked at him, "Sensei has good prononciation too, but you might want to work on your accent a bit. Your 'r' sounds too much like an 'l'."   
  
His eyes twitched again at what I said, but my cheeky response seemed to work since he didn't call on me for the rest of class.   
  
Sensei's voice was so loud that I couldn't fall back asleep, but the rest of my classes and lunch were pretty uneventful. Before I even knew it, we were sent out to select the clubs we would be joining this year. I turned to Sae and said, "I'm going to the tennis courts."   
  
She grinned at me and said, "Okay! I'm going to the student council room since I'm our class rep. Ja ne!"   
  
The two of us walked out of the room together and then went our separate ways. I quickly found my way to the tennis courts since I had actually visited the school during the break since I didn't want a repeat of my first day at Seigaku when Momo-senpai gave me the wrong directions. The courts were empty when I came here last time though, but this time, they seemed to be full. A quick look around made it easy to see who was a regular and who was just a normal club member. Most of the members were wearing solid, dark red tennis jerseys - but three people were wearing tennis jerseys that were black and red. I quickly walked up to one of the players wearing black and red and tapped him on the shoulder.   
  
He turned around and asked, "Can I help you, Echizen-kun?"   
  
The first thought that went through my head was, "How does he know my name?" I examined senpai's face a bit more before I finally recognized him. "Yukimura-san! Why are you here and not at Rikkai?"   
  
He chuckled, "My father's job transferred him to Tokyo at the end of my final year at Rikkaidai Fuzoku so I applied here to make things easier on my family."   
  
I nodded at his words since they seemed to make sense. Then I asked, "Where can I sign up for the tennis club?"   
  
He pointed to a booth that was behind him and said, "Just go there and fill out a registration form. And don't worry about not being able to participate in ranking matches. I know how good you are and already put you in - we choose our regulars based on talent and skill, not seniority."   
  
For the first time in a long time, I grinned, "Thank you, Yukimura-senpai."   
  
He smiled back at me, "It's no problem, Echizen-kun. Only a moron would keep you off their team after what happened back in middle school."   
  
When it seemed like the conversation was over, I ran over to the registration booth and filled out the form. Once it was filled out, I lined up with the other new members. After five minutes, Yukimura-senpai yelled, "Everyone, thirty laps now!" I immediately started running because I knew from experience with Tezuka-buchou that it's better to immediately start running when laps are assigned or else you'll have to run even more laps, which I'd rather not do on the first day.   
  
I was one of the first to finish, along with the current regulars. Most of the other non-regulars were panting before they were even close to finishing their laps.   
  
The one standing next to Yukimura popped his gum, "Well, since those guys look like they're out of commission, we'll just talk to you now and tell them everything tomorrow during morning practice."   
  
Yukimura spoke right after him, "I'm your buchou, Yukimura Seiichi - but I'm sure some of you already know who I am from middle school. The person next to me is Tsubaki Satoshi, your fukubuchou. The person yelling at the people who are laying on the ground is the training manager, Kazuki Jun. Ranking matches start in three weeks, and let me say this now - I don't care who's been around longer. I only put the best members in the ranking matches. You're out of the running as soon as you lose more than one match, and I will not put you back into the rankings. If you are in first or second year, then next year's captain can decide whether or not you can have another chance. However, our only rankings are in the beginning of the year when new members join and right before nationals. We do not have rankings at the end of the year because we do not want to risk losing next year's potential regulars. When the third years retire, the only thing that will happen is the selection of next year's buchou and fukubuchou - whoever is a regular at that time will remain regulars until the first ranking match the next year."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This mostly focused on Sae and her friends. I do have a reason for focusing on Ryoma for this chapter, but that reason will most likely not be revealed until the end of this story. Once I get the rankings done, the focus will be shifted back to Sae and Yu Yu Hakusho. Tennis will only come back during crucial points to Sae's character - so expect a lot of Seigaku matches focusing on her cousin, who plays a big role in Sae's development and helps her realize what she really feels.
> 
> Please note that this chapter was not in the original story. This is just something that I wrote when I decided that some characters needed more development - especially Sae since the original was focused on her, and I felt that she needed more friends besides Yuniko.


	3. The Ranking Matches

_ **Ryoma** _

It's the first day of the ranking matches. What happens this week determines whether or not I'll be able to play in the tennis competitions this year. I have no doubt that I could beat the non-regulars easily. I could probably beat one of the regulars too, as long as it's not Yukimura - I only defeated him back in middle school because I was able to unlock the Pinnacle of Perfection, or he would have won that match. I know I didn't beat him with skill, it was all luck.  
  
It will be different this year though. If I'm going to use any of the three doors, it'll be the Pinnacle of Hard Work or the Pinnacle of Great -Wisdom - but I will never use the Pinnacle of Perfection unless Yukimura-buchou makes me since he's the only one in Sengoku that knows I've unlocked that door. I just hope I never will have to use it. I even have a little note to give to Yukimura-buchou so that he knows that I'll only use it if he tells me to...although I should probably include fukubuchou in on it too - but I'll only do that if Yukimura-buchou tells me he has to be included.  
  
When I reached the tennis courts, I saw my two friends from middle school, Kato and Katsuo, waving me over to where they were - standing by a table that had the ranking tournament blocks behind it. I quickly rushed over to them when I saw that Sae was also there, holding up a sign that said, 'Good Luck Ryoma!' on it, which made me smile. It's funny, Sae is actually pretty similar to that loud girl from middle school, but for some reason - while I couldn't stand my loud self-proclaimed fanclub president, I thought Sae's actions were nice...but that might just be because I've known her longer and Osakada seemed like a lesser version of her in my eyes.  
  
I chuckled to myself. If Momo-senpai were here, he'd be pestering me about asking Sae on a date - like how he did when Ryuzaki had a massive crush on me back in my first year of middle school. Good thing he's not here. I blame him for me getting upset when Ryuzaki told me she was dating that red head from Shitenhouji. He made me think that Ryuzaki would always be there - so when I found out that she was dating someone else, I almost shut down until I remembered that Osakada was still obsessed with me. Of course, not even that worked out. Right when I was beginning to actually see her as a real girl and not some stupid fangirl, during our third year at Seigaku, stupid four-years-of-tennis-experience Horio comes in and asks her out and she surprisingly said yes. This didn't bother me as much as I expected that it would, but that might have been due to the fact that I was concentrating on the line-up for the district preliminaries at that time since I was adamant about winning the nationals during my final year at Seigaku. I probaly would have went to high school with the rest of the old Seigaku team, sans Tezuka-buchou and Oishi-senpai who had chosen to go to other schools, but over the rest of the year - I realized that I might not want to continue with Seigaku. Tezuka-buchou may have made me Seigaku's supporting pillar, but Tezuka wasn't there anymore - and he never mentioned whether or not it would include high school. To be honest, I felt like there was no reason for me to actually continue Seigaku. Momo-senpai might think that he's my best friend, but he's not - the only people I saw as friends in Seigaku were Kaidoh-senpai, Fuji-senpai, Katsuo and Kato. I saw Kaidoh-senpai as a friend because, aside from Ryuzaki-sensei, he was the first person from Seigaku that I actually knew; plus, Karupin liked him more than the rest of the regulars which was enough for me to see him as more than just a teammate. Fuji-senpai kind of acted like a big brother at times, especially when he found out about Kirihara injuring my knee before the Kanto finals of my first year - and he got revenge on Kirihara for me, even if I did have to yell at him to use the frame of the racket that one time - it still put him in my good books for life, though. Out of the regulars, they were the only two people whose phone numbers I actually know. I knew Tezuka's too, but he was basically my mentor/father-figure on the regulars since he acted more fatherly than oyaji 90% of the time - yes, this means he's in my good books too since I was the one that got revenge for his loss against Atobe at the beginning of the Kanto regionals that year.  
  
Where was I, again? Oh yeah, Kato. I see him as a friend because he's the only one of the "Ichinen trio" that could hold a decent rally against me - Katsuo can have a pretty good rally against me, too, but not as often as Kato can. He was actually my vice-captain while Katsuo became the training manager when I took over as the captain of Seigaku's middle school tennis team, so we had to actually talk to each other a lot. I found out we had quite a bit in common: we both thought of Horio as an annoying, bragging, idiot; we both think Dan Taichi is reaching way out of his league by obsessing over Akutsu so much; we thought Katsuo was like a mini-Oishi minus the mother hen streak; and we both wanted to prove that winning the nationals two years prior wasn't just a fluke. He became a bit of a confidant for me, to be honest. He could actually tell when something was weong - and whether or not it was something I needed to talk about, or if it was just something small that I could handle on my own. Basically, if we're talking about Seigaku, Kato was my best friend - not Momo-senpai. I only ever gave Momo-senpai the house phone number but Fuji-senpai, Kaidoh-senpai, and Kato could all reach me directly on either of my cellphones (one for international calls when I'm on vacation and one for when I'm actually in Japan) - and yes, Tezuka-buchou has both of those too - I told him about my decision to attend Sengoku around the same time I told Kaidoh-senpai (who told me that Sae would be going to Sengoku, as well), Fuji-senpai, and Kato - and he just wished me good luck and to not let my guard down, but he also hinted that I might see someone I knew from the middle school circuits as well.  
  
I was actually sorta surprised when I took the entrance exam for Sengoku. Not only did I see my childhood friend, Sae, but I saw Yuniko - who hates me for some reason that I don't know - and Kato. I remember asking Kato why he was there and he said that he didn't want me to have no friends in Sengoku's tennis club; he also told me that he managed to convince Katsuo to come too and then waved Katsuo over to where we were standing. It wasn't that long ago, so the conversation is still pretty fresh in my mind.  
  
 ** _\---- Begin Flashback ----_**  
I widened my eyes when I saw my former vice-captain and training manager standing side-by-side. I took a deep breath and asked Katsuo, "I know why Kato's here - but why are YOU here?"  
  
Katsuo smiled, "The three of us were the main reasons Seigaku was able to win the nationals last year - and you were the one that lead us to victory back then."  
  
Kato nodded, "The two of us were beginners during our first year of middle school, but now we've got some actual experience and we KNOW we can win. We don't want you to be alone here. We know it'll be hard for you make friends in the tennis club here - almost everyone else from our old school chose to continue at Seigaku."  
  
In unison, the two of them said, "You NEED us, Ryoma-kun."  
  
I could feel my lips curling up into a smile as I said, "Thanks, Katsuo. You too, Kato."  
  
Katsuo replied, "We wouldn't be good friends if we left you here on your own, and besides I've got an idea."  
  
I raised my eyebrow at him, "What is it, now?"  
  
Kato grinned, "Katsuo told me last night that at the national finals last year, he saw Yukimura-san watching us. You remember that match, right?"  
  
I nodded and asked, "What about it? We lost both doubles matches."  
  
Katsuo answered, "Yes, but we won all the singles matches - and the three of us were the ones that played in those slots. Our opponent that year was his alma mater, Rikkaidai Fuzoku - so he might have looked into the records of all three of us for the whole tennis tournament that year and noticed that it was the three of us that consistently won our matches. He might know that some of our pairs were good, but if he looked into it - he'd definitely know that we were the ones that brought Seigaku to victory."  
  
I sighed, "Okay, that makes sense - but what does Yukimura-san have anything to do with Sengoku?"  
  
He replied, "I heard that Yukimura-attended this school. I haven't confirmed it yet, but if it's true, then the three of us might be able to get into the ranking matches."  
  
Kato continued where Katsuo left off, "Think about it, Ryoma-kun! If we can win all of our matches in the ranking tournament, we could become the three best players in the high school circuit by the time Yukimura-senpai graduates."  
  
I laughed at that, "What? You want to become the 'three insert-some-random-scary-thing-here of Sengoku'? What if one of us gets matched against Yukimura-san? I may have beat him once, but that was luck - and you guys know it too."  
  
Katsuo replied, "Yukimura-san won't put freshmen up against himself, especially one as promising as you. If he does go here, and puts us in the ranking matches - he won't put us against himself, and if he did, he already knows it'll be impossible for the two of us to win, anyway, since the only person who has ever won against him is...well...YOU."  
  
I finally relented and said, "Okay, you win...let's become the..."  
  
The three of them completed my last statement, "..THREE MONSTERS OF SENGOKU!"  
 ** _\---- End Flashback ----_**  
  
By the time, I snapped out of my flashback, I was standing in front of the board with the ranking tournament match-ups on it. Like Katsuo said, we were all in the ranking tournament, and Yukimura put all three of us in blocks that were separate from his own "A" block. I was placed in "B" block with Tsubaki-fukubuchou, Katsuo was in "C" block with Kazuki-senpai, and Kato was in "D" block with no regulars defending their spots.  
  
 **\- skip to last day of ranking tournament-**  
The three of us had an easy time against the non-regulars. Kato had some difficulty with a few of his opponents, but he would still remain the victor. Yukimura-buchou easily annihilated all of the opponents in his own block - which is to be expected when he takes away all of their senses. The only time he didn't take someone's senses away was during his last match. He was actually the first person to secure his spot as a regular.  
  
I was the second person to secure a spot. Unsurprisingly, the match against Tsubaki-fukubuchou was quite difficult - and it was my last one, it was his too and both of us had not last a match for the duration of the tournament. The balls were really fast and were somewhat hard to see. It felt like he was making me dance around the court. When the score reached 2 - 5, with him in the lead, I knew I had to step up my game and activated the Pinnacle of Hard Work. Using that, I managed to win three consecutive games tying the score at 5-5. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, and he managed to score against me even though I was at game point. I switched to using the Pinnacle of Great Wisdom and won the final two games for a score of 7 - 5 in my favor, but by this point I was on my knees trying to catch my breath.  
  
Despite how tired I was, there was a smile on my face. I took a few deep breaths before walking up to the net to shake hands with Tsubaki-fukubuchou. Instead of my normal catchphrase, I said, "Nice game."  
  
He smiled and replied, "It was." He paused for a bit before saying, "At least my spot as a regular is still secured with only one loss." He looked me over again and said, "If you've already unlocked those two doors of Muga no Kyochi, it's only a matter of time before your unlock the final door."  
  
I bluntly responded, "I actually already unlocked that door three years ago. I just didn't want to use it for any more matches unless absolutely necessary since I've learned how to actually control it and use it at will."  
  
He raised an eyebrow at me, "Well, that explains why Yukimura was adamant about you being in the tournament." He walked over to the ranking scoreboard and motioned me to follow him. When we got there, he wrote our scores for the "B" block. Then, he looked over the scores of the other three blocks and said, "It looks like the confirmed regulars, so far are you, me, Yukimura, and some junior named Matsura Koji."  
  
I nodded at his statement before asking, "What about Mizuno Katsuo and Kachiro Kato?"  
  
He answered, "Both have two matches left. Mizuno-kun's next match is against Kazuki-kun, so if he wins, then he's confirmed as a regular. If he loses, then he has to win his last match to win. Same thing goes for Kachiro-kun, but he's only playing against non-regulars so I wouldn't worry so much." He looked at his wristwatch and said, "You can probably catch Mizuno-kun's match if you go right now. I have to go referee for 'D' block, so I'll be able to catch Kachiro-kun's match for you."  
  
I gave him a small smile and said, "Arigatou, Tsubaki-fukubuchou!"  
  
After thanking him, I turned around to walk towards the court Katsuo would be playing on. However, before I could start walking, he ruffled my hair and said, "No problem, kid!"  
  
I quickly ran over to the sidelines of the court Katsuo would be playing on and screamed at him, "You better win this, Katsuo! I don't wanna be stuck as the only freshman regular again!"  
  
Katsuo grinned at me, "Oh, I'll win - Kato and I didn't just train with his dad, we practiced with YOUR dad too, Ryoma-kun."  
  
I laughed at him and said, "Then you definitely have no excuse to lose to this guy!" _Unless he's like Yanagi, of course._  
  
After I laughed at Katsuo, the referee announced the match was about to begin. Once I saw Kazuki-senpai's first serve, I thought Katsuo would be a goner. It was a well-polished one that reminded me of Tokugawa-senpai's serve from the U-17 camp, although it wasn't nearly as fast. I let out a breath that I had no idea I was holding in when he was able to return it and start a long rally. It took them almost five full minutes before Kazuki-senpai won the first game. Another five minutes, Katsuo tied the score at 1 - 1. Neither of them dropped their service game. 45 minutes passed and the score had reached 6-5 in favor of Kazuki-senpai when I heard someone ask me, "Who's winning, Ryoma-kun?"  
  
I turned in the direction of the voice that interrupted my viewing of Katsuo's match and saw Kato standing right next to me. I blinked and answered him, "Nobody's winning yet, they're evenly matched - but what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be playing your own matches?"  
  
He shook his head at me, "Nope, I won both matches but my last opponent won five games against me and it ended with 7-5 in my favor. He's playing his last match against the guy I defeated before him right now."  
  
I nodded at what he said, "Well, let's just hope Katsuo can win his match too."  
  
I saw Katsuo smash the ball onto Kazuki-senpai's court, tying the score at 6-6 and making the match go into tiebreak. Luck must have been on Katsuo's side to day because when the score was 20 - 21 in Katsuo's favor, Kazuki-senpai's return landed on the net - teetering between Katsuo's court and Kazuki-senpai's courts. I held my breath hoping, praying, for the ball to land in Kazuki-senpai's court. Those prayers were not in vain because that's exactly what happened. After 40 agonizing seconds of not knowing if Katsuo will win or not, the ball rolled along the net and landed in Kazuki-senpai's court. The tiebreak game ended with a score of 20 - 22 in Katsuo's favor. I let out the breath I had been holding in, and then sighed with a smile on my face. The referee finally announced the score, "Game and Match to Mizuno, 7 games to 6!"  
  
After the referee announced the score, Katsuo ran out of the court, towards us and said, "I did it, guys!" He turned to Kato and asked, "How did you do, Kato?"  
  
Kato told him the same thing that he had told me before the three of us huddled together. I smiled at both of them and said, "Looks like your plan on becoming Sengoku's three monsters might actually work."  
  
Katsuo grinned at us and said, "Oh, I know it will! Two years from now, we'll be the ones to beat in the high school circuit."  
  
A person chuckling behind us interrupted our conversation. The three of us turned around to see Yukimura-buchou and Tsubaki-fukubuchou standing side-by-side. With a serene smile on his face, Yukimura-buchou said, "I guess we won't have any problem winning our third consecutive national championship, then." Then he raised his voice, "We'll slaughter everyone else on the courts." He turned his head and looked straight at me, motioning for me to follow him.  
  
Yukimura-buchou lead me towards the clubroom before he turned around to look at me. He said, "Echizen-kun, we can't let this be a repeat of what happened in middle school three years ago."  
  
I looked him straight in the eye and said, "I have no intention of letting us lose the national championships. The players on this team are good, and I have no doubt that we can crush all of our opponents."  
  
He nodded at me and said, "Don't disappoint me, Echizen. If you lose even one match in any of the official tournaments before nationals, unless they're from Seigaku or Rikkaidai, your two friends are out. I know how well you play and I know you're on national-level, so your position is secured - but there's aren't. I heard what the three of you were talking about. You three can't simply win your matches, you'll have to break your opponents. I can tell by the look in your eyes, Echizen, you have what it takes to crush everyone out there; you won't just be Samurai Junior anymore, you'll be known as the Samurai Prince - one of Sengoku's three monsters. Kachiro-kun has the potential to be what Sanada once was to Rikkaidai Fuzoku, but I haven't thought of a name for it yet - but you did refer to yourselves as the three monsters, so I suppose we can refer to him as Lucifer, the Devil of Sengoku - of course, that's only if he's able to hide that kind nature of his when he's on the tennis courts. Mizuno-kun shows a lot of promise in becoming the most fearful data player in the high school tennis circuit...the Mind Reaper."  
  
He paused a bit to catch his breath and said, "Becoming the three monsters will be a lot of work. I might be able to help you come into your role as the Samurai Prince, and since I know your father is already working you to the bone - molding you into what you could be, shouldn't be all too difficult. However, it's up to you to shape Mizuno-kun and Kachiro-kun into what they're meant to be." He turned around to walk back to the courts before telling me, "I'm counting on you to continue Sengoku's legacy after I leave, Echizen-kun."  
  
I answered his challenge, "We will become Sengoku's three monsters, and we will ensure that we win our third consecutive national championship." I sighed and then continued, "I won't let us lose a single tournament when the third years retire - even I have to slaughter every single member of this club on the courts to make them see that Sengoku must never lose."  
  
He chuckled, "I have no doubt that you can follow through on your promise, it's the other two that I'm worried about - shape them into who they're meant to be, but don't let them lose themselves in the process. I failed with Akaya. I turned him into the Devil of Rikkaidai, but in the process, he lost his innocence and burnt through his potential. I don't want that to happen to you - or your friends. Become the best in tennis - but don't ever lose sight of who you really are."  
  
When he finished his statement, he walked to the courts and stood by Tsubaki-fukubuchou. He yelled out, "Everyone, gather around!"  
  
Next to him, fukubuchou yelled, "We will now announce the regulars for this season."  
  
I quickly ran to the courts, deciding to stand by Katsuo and Kato, in preparation for the announcement.  
  
Kazuki-senpai walked up front and coughed before he announced the regular line-up. "From Block A, Yukimura Seiichi (III) and Matsura Koji (II). From Block B, Tsubaki Satoshi(III) and Echizen Ryoma(I)."  
  
Yukimura-buchou continued from where Kazuki-senpai left off, "From Block C, we have Kazuki Jun (III) and Mizuno Katsuo (I). Finally from Block D, we have Mizumaki Sasuke (II) and Kachiro Kato (I)."  
  
Tsubaki ended it all when he said, "First-years, pick up the balls. Everyone else, collect the nets. Regulars, dismissed!"  
  
With that, Katsuo, Kato, and I went over to Kawamura Sushi to celebrate becoming regulars. Kawamura-senpai even gave us all-you-can eat sushi for free. Kawamura-senpai's father even said, "Come by any time you like! I'll be prepared to make all-you-can eat for every tournament so feel free to celebrate here whenever you guys win."  
  
As I ate, I thought, "I'm definitely telling Yukimura-buchou about this - he should be okay with it since it's pretty much free." I smiled at him and said, "Thank you, Kawamura-san."  
  
He laughed and said, "No problem! Now, what is it that you three are calling yourselves again?"  
  
Katsuo grinned and said, "Sengoku's three monsters."  
  
Kawamura-senpai asked, "Like Rikkaidai's three demons?"  
  
Kato nodded, "Yes, senpai. We even have Yukimura-buchou's support, although he's mainly supporting Ryoma-kun, but it still counts!"  
  
He chucked and said, "I'll just guess that Echizen would be Yukimura - while you and Mizuno would be Sanada and Yanagi, respectively."  
  
Kato looked at him with wide eyes and asked, "How'd you know?"  
  
Kawamura-senpai calmly answered, "You're more skilled than Mizuno, and more powerful them - much like Sanada clearly has more strength and skill than Yanagi. Mizuno seems like more of a data player. I could tell from when I visited you guys while you were still in middle school that he would improve a lot of if he used data tennis."  
  
Katsuo smiled sheepishly and said, "You saw that, too? Yukimura-buchou figured it out fast too."  
  
I snorted, "Yeah, and he expects me to help you two become more like Sanada and Yanagi in terms of tennis."  
  
Kawamura-senpai replied to what I said, 'Well, that's not surprising. You're the most experienced of the three of you, after all. It's only natural that he entrusts you with the task of ensuring that you to can not only make it to nationals on your own next year, but to win the tournaments completely."  
  
I sighed, "I guess you're right, Kawamura-senpai - but I've got to go, we've got morning practice first thing tomorrow and I don't want to risk Yukimura-buchou or Tsubaki-fukubuchou being like Tezuka-buchou from Seigaku, or Sanada-san from Rikkaidai, and have fetishes for assigning massive amounts of laps just for being late." The father-and-son sushi chefs bid the three of us goodbye when Katsuo and Kato also announced that they had to leave.

_ **Sae** _

The first thing I did after finishing the homwork that would be due tomorrow was call Ryoma. After two rings, he picked up.  
  
 _"Moshi moshi."_  
"It's me, Sae"  
 _"I know, I have caller ID."_  
"How dd the rankings go?"  
 _"I won all of my matches. Katsuo and Kato won all of their matches too."_  
"Were they the two boys who were talking to you on the day of the entrance exam?"  
 _"Yes, they were, but I've got to hang up now. I have to do my homework still, and I have morning practice tomorrow. Ja ne."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ryoma's talk about middle school was not a full account of his three middle school years, that would take too long - it was a shortened version of it that served the purpose of telling the audience who Ryoma actually considered his friends. I may or may not write a short story about his second and third year at Seigaku - or I may write a long chaptered one, which could be considered the prequel to this.
> 
> The only flashback that Ryoma had was the conversation between him, Katsuo, and Kato.
> 
> The roman numerals in parantheses (I, II, III) represent what year they are in. It's simple enough to figure out, but there's a key below if you can't - remember that Japanese students go to high school for three years.
> 
> I - freshman - 10th grade  
> II - junior - 11th grade  
> III - senior - 12th grade


	4. Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Super short chapter that introduces some of the Yu Yu Hakusho elements. Sorry YYH fans, but they'll be stereotypical popular kids here - meaning they'll act like jerks and really are jerks.

_ **Kazuma** _

I growled at Hiei, "There's no way we'll be able to get away with your plan and you fucking know it!"   
  
He looked at me and said, "What do you mean? Kurama can easily make the plants in Konomi-kochou's office grow and Yusuke will have an army of his family's follwers ready to back them up if someone can even get past Kurama's plants. It's foolproof, Kuwabara!"   
  
I rolled my eyes at him and said, "Look, Hiei. Every fucking time you say that, we get caught and end up in detention for weeks. If you want this to work, we'll need someone to cover for us."   
  
He huffed at me and said, "Fine, we'll do it your way. Maybe we can convince some nerd that the principal always believes to give us an alibi."   
  
I snorted, "How do you plan on making that work? There are no nerds in our group of friends, shrimp."   
  
He smirked, "We find a nerdy girl and make her your girlfriend. If you don't end up liking her, or at least tolerating her, you can just cheat since none of our friends know her anyway."

_ **Mizuki** _

I was listening to my iPod when I heard what my boyfriend, Hiei, and Kuwabara were talking about. I took out my headphones and glared at them. I said to Hiei, "Let me get this straight, honey. You plan on making Kuwabara hook up with some girl just so we can get away with Konomi-kochou's car on the roof, and then you're going to have him cheat on her!   
  
Hiei replied, "It's not like I'll be making him cheat on her. Whether or not he cheats is his own choice." He paused and raised his voice, "Besides, you're my girlfriend - you're supposed to be taking my side!"   
  
My best friend, Chi came to my defense and yelled at Hiei, "She doesn't have to take your side just because she's your girlfriend!"   
  
Yusuke decided to step into the conversation. "Who cares? Kuwabara can just dump her!"   
  
I rolled my eyes at him, "Whatever. Dumping her is, at least, better than cheating on the poor girl."   
  
Chi's boyfriend, Kurama, ended our conversation by saying, "So we're all on the same page, now, right?"   
  
The rest of us all nodded.


	5. Evaluation Tests

_ **Sae** _

While Ryoma was practicing for his upcoming tennis tournaments, I was studying for the upcoming evaluation tests that would be starting on Monday. I heard that if you score high enough you can actually skip a few years for certain classes. The tests would be taking place next week, and, aside from Japanese - I wasn't really doing all that well, unlike Ryoma who spent years in America and could easily skip into senior English (possibly placing with the advanced students) even if he was only awake for ten minutes of the test; knowing him, ten minutes is all he would need to complete the entire English portion.   
  
I groaned in frustration. There was no way I was going to be able to score in the top 50. Sure, I was kidding about not doing too well - except for English, I'm serious about being horrible in that class, and it will be a cold day in hell before I actually ask Ryoma for help. The last time I tried that, he just made fun of me - and then he went on-and-on about how 3rd graders were better than me at English. _Sorry for not living in America for eight years (from birth until his 5th birthday, then 4th - 6th grade, coming back to Japan for 7th grade)._ It's not my fault I didn't grow up constantly hearing people speak in English.   
  
Of course, I can't exactly complain about how he treats me when I ask for help in English...especially since I make fun of him just as much as he makes fun of me when I tutor him in Japanese - he's not the best at learning new kanji, but he learns new kanji faster than I learn new English words and grammar rules. It takes him a few days to get it completely correct (including grammar), it takes me the same amount of time to understand the grammar rules - but twice as long to incorporate the grammar rule using the new words and actually have everything spelled correctly.   
  
I shook my head frantically. This was no time for reminiscence - I needed to study if I wanted to get into the top 50.

**_ Yuniko _ **

"Arigatou, Yanagi-senpai!"   
  
If you couldn't tell, I was seeing off one of my senpai from my Rikkaidai days. Yanagi-senpai was known as the Master back in middle school, so I knew he could help me study for my evaluation tests - which for some reason, only let freshman and juniors move up. For the seniors, the whole purpose of them is to show who's ranked #1.   
  
I smiled, thinking that I might actually place first this year out of all the freshmen. Sae might be a genius, but she's a failure at English without Ryoma's help - and, knowing her, she'll refuse to ask for help since these are the evaluation tests. Even when she's offered help for evaluation tests, she usually turns it down - unless they agree to be paid for the help. Ryoma is the same in that he hates asking for help, unless it's from Sae, but, unlike her, he'll accept help from people who simply offer - so I can already tell that he should do better than her. He'll probably do as good as, or better than me, now that I think about it.   
  
Returning to my bedroom, I opened up my history textbook and notebooks. I knew this was the only class I could get a really good score on with or without help from others. It was the only class that came really easily to me.

_ **Ryoma** _

We were currently taking a break from practice. I was sitting on the bench looking over my notes from Japanese class when Yukimura-buchou asked, "What are you doing, Echizen-kun?"   
  
I answered, "Looking over my notes. Evaluations are on Monday and I'm afraid I might not do too well on the Japanese portion of it since I basically spent half my life in America - I'm not exactly the best at learning new kanji."   
  
Tsubaki-fukubuchou walked by as I spoke and said, "We can help you if you want. It's crucial that all regulars score within the top 50 of their respective grade levels."   
  
I replied, "Japanese is the only class I'm having trouble with - everything else is easy. I don't like history too much, but memorizing the information is easy enough. I just think that my Japanese grade will bring down my score and take me out of the top 50."   
  
He looked at me and said, "Not doing well in one class shouldn't be enough to take you out of the top 50 - but I don't know how many first years there are in our school, so there might be 50 or more of them that do just as well as you in other classes, but do better than you in that one area." He paused for a bit and said, "We'll be holding mandatory study sessions for the tennis regulars at the library until Monday."   
  
**\- fast forward to Monday @ morning practice -**   
Yukimura-buchou asked me, "Are you confident about your tests, Echizen?"   
  
I nodded, "The study sessions with the other regulars really helped, and Kazuki-senpai gave me some great tips for learning new kanji. I never knew he lived in since he was four America and didn't come back until his second year of middle school. I might have asked him for help earlier if I knew since his situation was similar to mine."   
  
Buchou chuckled, "No one ever asked, but I'm sure he'll have no problem tutoring you if you ever need help in your classes."   
  
Before I could respond, the bell rang and we had to go to our classes to take our evaluation tests.   
  
A testing packet was given to me as soon as I sat down. I quickly looked up at the board and saw that the packet contained only one portion of the test, and that I'd have to hand it in to receive the next portion of it. I looked down on my packet and saw that it was for **English**. I immediately started on it and frowned at how simple it was. When I finished it, I looked at the clock and saw that it had barely been ten minutes. I would sleep to pass some time but I want to get the Japanese portion over and done with, and I had feeling that it would be the next portion after this one. I quickly glanced over it before walking up to the teacher and receiving the next portion of the evaluation tests.   
  
My feeling was right. The second portion of the test was **Japanese**. I quickly got started on it, knowing that I would definitely need to double-check it. I started off doing the portions of the Japanese test that I was confident I could answer correctly - the multiple choice part - before moving on to the short-answer problems. The short-answer section was slightly easier than I thought it would be. They were mostly questions based off of the book we read in the beginning of the school year, so I only had to look over my answers for them once. I saved the essay for last because I knew it would take me a long time to make sure the grammar was correct. I read the prompt: _Describe your favorite hobby and why you chose to pursue it. At least two paragraphs are needed._ I grinned - this was an easy topic so grammar really would be my only problem here.   
  
**\-- Begin Essay --**   
_When people ask me what my favorite sport is, I tell them the same thing every time: tennis. I don't know what made me fall in love with the game because I've been playing tennis ever since I was able to hold a racket in my hands. My mother tells me that I was only around two years old when my father began to teach me how to play, so that might have something to do with it. It started off with my father hitting balls towards the racket I would be holding with me trying, and failing, to return them. It wasn't until I was five that I was able to successully return a ball that my father would serve to me. According to my mother, my dad had a huge grin on his face when I finally managed to hit a ball back over the net._  
  
After that, my father would just push me harder and harder when it came to tennis - having me play against him everyday. It almost came to the point where I just wanted to quit. Yet, no matter how much I wanted to stop playing...I just couldn't. I was eight when I realized that I wouldn't be able to let myself stop playing completely until I could defeat my father. With that realization, I surrendered to the fact that I might never be able to stop playing tennis. This made me miserable because, at that point, I believed that I despised the game.   
  
Despite living in Japan at the time, my father had signed me up for the American Junior Championships. The American Tennis Association had allowed it since I was born in America. I won the tournament that year and the next before we moved back to America when I was ten. I proceeded to win the American Junior Championships another two times before my father decided to move us back to Japan so I could attend his old middle school: Seishun Gakuen.   
  
Seishun Gakuen was where I learned to, once again, love playing tennis. At first, I was just going to use them as stepping stones to get good enough to finally defeat my father - but my buchou, Tezuka Kunimitsu, showed me that I was going about it the wrong way. I remember how, shortly after districts, Tezuka-buchou and I played a match against each other. It was a complete loss on my end, but I can still remember the feeling of having fun against him. I can still remember the words he said to me: "Become Seigaku's pillar of support."   
  
That's exactly what I did. I won all of my matches, from prefecturals all the way through the regional finals - even defeating Sanada Genichirou, who was known as the Emperor, and the second-best player in the middle school tennis circuit. However, it wasn't until nationals that I was truly able to take the role of being Seigaku's pillar of support from Tezuka-buchou. I defeated Atobe Keigo, who practically destroyed Tezuka-buchou's shoulder in the first round of the regional tournament that year. I defeated Yukimura Seiichi, the best tennis player in the middle school tennis circuit - the person who is known as the Child of God.   
  
That last match is a blur to me. I remember being down 3 - 0 before finally activating the first pinnacle of Muga no Kyochi. I managed to win a few games with that before I switched to the second pinnacle which allowed me to predict when I would score next, but I broke my own prediction when my nose started to bleed. I didn't even feel the blood coming out of my nose - but that wasn't the worst of it. Yukimura started taking all of my senses away until I couldn't see, hear, or feel what I was holding in my hand. I was practically unconscious - but I could hear my dad asking me, "Oi, Ryoma, is tennis fun?"   
  
My dad was the reason I was able to get up and win that match. I never thought taking my senses away would be what showed me how fun tennis could really be. That's what the so-called Pinnacle of Perfection is: having fun playing tennis, not caring about what the result would be. However, I still think it was just luck that I was able to activate it in the middle of the match. I didn't even realize that I won until I heard the referee announce, "Game and match to Seigaku, 6 games to 4!"   
  
I could say it was my buchou that showed me how to love tennis again, but then I would be lying. I'd be lying if I said that my father was the reason that I continue to pursue tennis - it would have been the truth when I was ten, but not now. The truth is: I pursue tennis because I want to. Every single person I faced in middle school helped me realize that tennis was something I loved, and that no matter how hard I try, I would never be able to stop playing simply because, and I'm quoting one of my rivals here, "Echizen Ryoma doesn't play tennis, he IS tennis."   
**\-- End Essay --**   
  
When I was satisfied with my essay, I handed in the Japanese portion of my evaluation tests. I noticed that Sae was still writing, but I knew she'd finish it before I got halfway through my next section, which was science.   
  
I completed test after test - science and home economics, they omitted the one for PE since I was a regular on the tennis team. Before I knew it, I handed in the history portion and the teacher said that the next one would be my last. I looked down at the final packet that he handed me. It was mathematics, which I quickly breezed through. After I handed in the final portion of the evaluation tests, I laid my head down on my desk and put myself to sleep.

_ **Sae** _

I quickly glanced over at Ryoma. He was sleeping. I glanced over at the teacher. He was looking at Ryoma as well, but he wasn't trying to wake him up. It was then that I realized that he probably finished everything while I was still working on the history test. I remembered him walking back to his desk after handing in the home economics test - and instead of seeing the PE test that most people got, he received the history test. I'll ask him about it later, I guess.   
  
An hour later, everyone was done and the teacher dismissed us for the day. I walked over to Ryoma and tried to wake him up. Poking him didn't work, so I resorted to poking and whining, "Ryo-chan, wake up!"   
  
He woke up, but not without growling at me, "What?"   
  
I smiled at him and said, "Sensei dismissed everyone! Wanna go get something to eat?"   
  
He yawned and said, "Sure."   
  
He got up out of his seat and followed me to the cafeteria where he ordered udon and I ordered yakisoba. While we were eating, I asked him, "How did you finish so fast? You usually finish around the same time that I do."   
  
He answered, "Regulars for sports teams don't have to take the PE test, apparently."   
  
I whined, "No fair! Just because you're a tennis regular doesn't mean you should be exempted from the test - you still go to PE with the rest of us."   
  
Before Ryoma could reply, someone else answered for him, "The school wants the sports regulars to focus more on tournaments than on a PE test that they could easily get a perfect score on - that's why all regulars get a perfect score on the PE test by default."   
  
I looked at the guy who interrupted my conversation with Ryoma and asked, "Who are you?"   
  
He answered me, "Yukimura Seiichi, Echizen-kun's buchou. The one standing behind me is the fukubuchou, Tsubaki Satoshi."   
  
I smiled at them, "Nice to meet you, Yukimura-senpai. You too, Tsubaki-senpai."   
  
Both of them nodded at me. Tsubaki-senpai asked Ryoma, "How did your tests go, Echizen?"   
  
Ryoma answered him, "They were all really easy, except for Japanese which actually took me awhile - especially since we had to write an essay for that one." He turned to Yukimura-senpai and said, "I even mentioned you in my essay, buchou!"   
  
Yukimura-senpai chuckled, "I'm guessing they used that favorite hobby prompt again this year."   
  
I nodded, "Yeah, that could explain why Ryoma finished that test earlier than me since I finished English only a minute or two after he did. He usually talks about nothing but tennis - so it's no wonder he could write an essay about it so fast. It took me a long time just to decide on a hobby to write about, and then I had to think about why I took up that hobby in the first place." I poked Ryoma and continued, "On the other hand, tennis is usually the only thing this guy even thinks about."   
  
Ryoma's buchou chuckled again and said, "That's not surprising, actually. I'm more surprised that he mentioned me in a school essay." He turned to Ryoma and said, "It was our match during the national finals, wasn't it?"   
  
Ryoma nodded. Yukimura-senpai ruffled his hair and said, "Well, we just have to wait for Kazuki, Matsura, and Mizumaki to finish their own tests - and then we'll be starting afternoon practice." He stood up and just before walking away with Tsubaki-senpai, he said, "Ja ne, Echizen-kun and Echizen-kun's friend."   
  
While Ryoma laughed, I growled at the two senpais that were about to walk out. "My name is Sae! Kaidoh Sae!"   
  
Yukimura-senpai turned around, looked directly into my eyes and asked, "Any relation to Kaidoh Kaoru."   
  
I blushed and nodded, "Kaoru is my older cousin."   
  
Yukimura-senpai pursed his lips before he said, "Well, now I know why you looked familiar." With that, he walked out of the cafeteria with Tsubaki-senpai in tow.   
  
I turned to Ryoma and saw that he was almost finished with his udon. I sighed at him, "How do you eat so fast?"   
  
He bluntly replied, "Hamburger eating contests with Momo-senpai."   
  
I gagged at his answer. _Hamburger eating contests, really? That's disgusting!_


	6. The Feared Inui Juice

**_Sae_**  
  
Ryoma and I were patiently sitting outside our classroom waiting for the results of the evaluation tests that we took last Monday. They were going in alphabetical order, by family name, which meant Ryoma would find out his results before I found out my own. They were just now finishing up the D's. Before I knew it, Ryoma was walking into the classroom - which means I must not have heard the teacher call him in.

_ **Ryoma** _

When I walked inside the classroom, the teacher told me, "Sit down, Echizen." He was pointing to the chair he placed right in front of his desk.  
  
I did exactly as he told me and waited for him to get to the point.  
  
He sighed, "If it weren't for you constantly sleeping in class, you might be one of my favorite students." He handed me my results and smiled, "Congratulations, Echizen."  
  
I looked at my scores: Mathematics - 465/500, Home Economics - 450/500, Science - 480/500, History - 475/500, Japanese - 485/500, PE - 500/500 (omitted), English - 500/500. I asked the teacher, "What does this mean?"  
  
He answered, "Your science and history scores have moved you into the third-year class. You'll be taking English with the advanced third years. Overall, you're ranked second among the first-year students. The person who ranked first doesn't do nearly as well as you in any area, except for history - I think the guy just studied until they dropped dead from exhaustion." He smiled at me again and handed me another piece of paper, "Here's your new schedule. It will go into effect tomorrow."

_ **Sae** _

When Ryoma walked out, I asked him, "How did you do?"  
  
He replied, "I moved into the advance third-year English class. I'm also being moved into the third-year sections for science and history."  
  
I pouted, "Yuniko just texted me and said she'll be taking a third-year history class, too. That's the only place she moved up in though."  
  
I heard my name being called so I got up and told Ryoma, "Wait for me so I can tell you how I did before you go to your practice." He nodded so I walked into the classroom.  
  
The teacher simply told me to take a seat in front of his desk and handed me a piece of paper with my results: Mathematics - 470/500, Home Economics - 470/500, Science - 460/500, History - 470/500, Japanese - 495/500, PE - 440/500, English - 480/500.  
  
He handed me another piece of paper and said, "Here's your new schedule which will go into effect tomorrow. You'll be moving into third-year class for Japanese, and the second-year class for both math and science. You'll be staying with us for everything else."  
  
I frowned, "No advanced classes?"  
  
He shook his head and replied, "There's no such thing as an advanced third-year Japanese class at Sengoku right now, or we would have put you there."  
  
I whined, "But Ryoma sleeps in class and he got moved into the advanced third-year English class."  
  
He sighed and said, "Echizen also spent half of his life in America. Moving him into the advanced course might be our only hope of keeping him awake."  
  
I pouted, "Fine."  
  
After my mini-argument with the teacher, I calmly walked out of the classroom. Ryoma took one look at me and I could tell he thought I was upset. Not wanting to talk about my results or schedule, I just shoved them into his hands and had him look at them. He chuckled and said, "I'm surprised you're not in an advanced Japanese course."  
  
I growled at him, "There is none!"  
  
He gave me my papers back and rose both his hands in defeat, while saying, "Okay, okay. I'm just going to go to practice now and let you...gripe...about not being in any advanced classes." With his statement, Ryoma walked away from me, heading outside towards the tennis courts.

_ **Ryoma** _

I sighed as I walked toward my destination. I should have warned Sae about the fact that there was no advanced Japanese class; Yukimura-buchou and Tsubaki-fukubuchou had told me that ahead of time. I shook my head when I thought about that - it wasn't **my job** to tell her which courses were available at our school.  
  
As soon as I reached the courts, Kato and Katsuo called out, "Ryoma-kun!"  
  
I walked over towards them and asked, "What is it?"  
  
Kato had a sheepish smile on his face and answered, "We just wanted to know how you did on your evaluation tests last Monday. Katsuo-kun and I are both being moved into a third-year history course."  
  
I nodded, "I'm moving into third-year history, too - along with a third-year science course. They're also putting me with the _advanced_ third-years for English."  
  
Katsuo grinned, "They're probably putting you in the advanced English course to make you stay awake."  
  
I pursed my lips and replied, "It's not my fault that what we learn in that class is stuff I've known since we were still in elementary school. I've known most of the stuff since I was five - the rest of it was learned when I moved back to the states when I was ten. Blame my baka oyaji for me knowing so much English that I fall asleep in class."  
  
Kato laughed and said, "You should stop blaming him for everything, Ryoma-kun."  
  
I smiled in response, "But it's so _easy_ to blame everything on him."  
  
Before Kato or Katsuo could retort, Yukimura-buchou called us, "Everyone, gather around!"  
  
Yukimura-buchou coughed to make sure everyone's attention was on him. He smiled at all of us and said, "I know most of you are all excited about finally receiving the results of last week's evaluation tests, but the district preliminaries are two weeks from now - we can't afford to slack off."  
  
Tsubaki-fukubuchou added to buchou's statement, "Freshmen, start practicing your swings on Court E. Juniors and seniors, play practice matches on Courts C and D. Regulars, courts A and B!"  
  
Yukimura-buchou nodded at what fukubuchou said before saying, "But before we begin - run fifty laps now!"  
  
Nearly everyone started running their laps as soon as buchou completed his last statement, with the exception of a few non-regular juniors and seniors. However, Kato and Katsuo - along with one or two others - were the only freshmen that could actually keep up with me. I suppose it was because I had the advantage of being a regular on my middle school tennis team for all three years - Kato and Katsuo were able to get into the regulars in their second year of middle school, they helped me keep the non-regulars in check back then since Momo-senpai and Kaidoh-senpai usually argued with one another.  
  
Halfway through our laps, I noticed that most of the freshmen had collapsed. Then, I said to Kato and Katsuo, "It looks like the three of us are the only ones with enough stamina for this."  
  
Katsuo laughed, "Well, this is nothing compared to the amount of laps we had to do back in Seigaku, Ryoma-kun."  
  
Kato added in, "Katsuo-kun is right, Ryoma-kun. I remember, back in our first year of middle school, we'd have to run about sixty laps - but we had to run each one in less than fifty-five seconds. Katsuo-kun, Horio-kun and I could keep up with you and the other regulars for about thirty laps but we'd eventually get too tired."  
  
Katsuo shuddered, "What he said. And when we would give up on running laps at Seigaku, we'd have to drink Inui Juice - even when he graduated because he gave Kaidoh-senpai his juice recipes." He gagged a little bit and then said, "At least we don't have to do that this year," he looked at my face for a bit, noticing my grin, before asking, "Why are you smiling Ryoma-kun?"  
  
I smirked, "Heh. Kaidoh-senpai gave me Inui's juice recipes when he chose me as Seigaku's next buchou when he and Momo-senpai had to retire in their third year of middle school."  
  
Kato gulped, "You didn't keep them, right?"  
  
My smirk was even more prominent now. I replied, "Oh, I kept them alright - and Inui-senpai sends me the recipes for the juices he's been forcing onto the current Seigaku high school tennis team." I laughed for a bit and then said, "Don't worry too much, though, the kid I chose to take over for me back in the middle school division only has the recipes that I had passed down to him before our middle school graduation - those are the ones that are going to be feared by the future generations of Seigaku tennis players."  
  
Katsuo screamed at me, "You didn't pass down Aozu and Akazu, right? Those were evil!"  
  
I snorted, "No, but I'm saving Akazu for a day that practice is running slow - I've got a video from one of our old training sessions so Yukimura-senpai can see what a great motivator those juices are."  
  
Kato cried out, "The only reason people were so motivated by those was because they were too scared to drink them!"  
  
I grinned, "Exactly."  
  
We we finished with all fifty laps before either one of them could reply to me. Yukimura-buchou walked up to us and asked, "What could you guys possibly be talking about?"  
  
Katsuo and Kato whined in unison, "Ryoma-kun's methods for motivating slackers to practice."  
  
Yukimura-buchou raised an eyebrow at me, asking, "You were captain last year?"  
  
I nodded and said, "Yeah, and Kaidoh-senpai basically started a tradition of passing down Inui-senpai's juice recipes."  
  
Tsubaki-fukubuchou came by and asked, "Is this Inui Juice stuff that bad?"  
  
Katsuo cried, "Yes! It's knocked people out before."  
  
I smirked, "But that's exactly why people trained so much harder."  
  
Kato whined, "They only trained harder because you made everyone that DID give up in the middle of training drink an entire jug of Akazu!"  
  
Yukimura-buchou chuckled, "Interesting. I heard about these juices from Renji. Feel free to bring in entire _gallon_ of the two most feared of his juice recipes for tomorrow's practices."  
  
I asked, "Why two of them?"  
  
He smiled and said, "The less feared one will be given to the people who lose their practice matches and can't finish their laps within a certain amount of time. The most feared one for the people who just give up."  
  
I grinned back at him and then said to Kato and Katsuo, "Kato, you're helping me carry the Akazu for the people who aren't training hard enough to finish training or win a practice match. Katsuo, you'll be carrying the Aozu for all the quitters."  
  
Yukimura-buchou looked at both of them and nodded his head to show that it wasn't just a request from me, but an _order_ from him. The two of them groaned at the realization that they might be forced to endure training with Inui-senpai's juice recipes again.  
  
Kazuki-senpai jogged over to where the five of us - Yukimura-buchou, Tsubaki-fukubuchou, Kato, Katsuo, and I - were standing when he heard Kato and Katsuo groaning. He asked us, "What are those two whining about?"  
  
Tsubaki-fukubuchou answered, "You'll find out tomorrow."  
  
 **\- fast forward to Wednesday morning -**  
Kato and Katsuo had slept over last night since they were going to help me bring the gallons of Akazu and Aozu to today's practice. We had just finished filling up the gallon of Aozu and were now filling up the gallon of Akazu. Yukimura-buchou had told us at the end of practice yesterday that he and Tsubaki-fukubuchou would help us set the gallons up so they could easily give the drinks to the people who _earned_ the right to drink them.  
  
When we finished filling up the gallons, Nanako came in and asked, "Are you boys done, now?"  
  
Kato answered, "Yeah. We just finished filling up the two gallons of Inui-senpai's juice for today's practice."  
  
She nodded and then asked, "Have you eaten yet?"  
  
The three of us shook our heads. Katsuo said, "The three of us got up around 4am to make the Inui Juice since we couldn't do it last night, and then we had to actually fill up the gallons that our buchou wanted."  
  
She frowned and then told us, "Put those gallons in the living room. I'll make you guys breakfast since it's only 5:30 right now. Then I'll help you bring them to practice so you can get a bit more sleep." She walked over to the stairs when she had seen that we put the two gallons of Inui Juice in the living room and yelled, "Ojii-san, get down here!"  
  
My baka oyaji came downstairs and asked Nanako, "What is it?"  
  
Nanako answered him, "The boys put two gallons of juice in the living room. Put them in the trunk of my car so I can help them bring the juice to school."  
  
Oyaji scoffed at her, "Fine, but I'm going back to bed afterwards." He walked into the living room to get the two gallons. He picked them up and proceeded to go outside so he could put them in Nanako's car. While he was carrying the gallons, I could hear him mutter, "How can two gallons of juice be this heavy?" Ten minutes later, he walked back in and went upstairs. I could hear him open his door and crash on the bed.  
  
Kato laughed, "Your dad is so childish sometimes, Ryoma-kun."  
  
I frowned, "Why do you think I denied being related to him whenever he came by to watch me play in tournaments in middle school?"  
  
Katsuo screamed at me, "So I was right about that monk with the sunglasses being your father!"  
  
I groaned, "Yes, I admit it - are you happy, now?"  
  
Nanako laughed at the three of us, "Your food is ready, boys."  
  
I looked down at the plates she put in front of us. She made my favorite Japanese breakfast. I looked up at her and said, "Thank you, aneki."  
  
Twenty minutes later, the three of us finished our breakfast. We were about to get up to put our plates in the sink when Nanako stopped us and said, "Leave those on the table, I'll take care of them later. Get in my car so I can take you boys to practice. That way you boys can get some more sleep, since you barely got any last night."  
  
The three of us put the plates back on the table, collected our school and tennis bags, and headed toward Nanako's car. Once we were seated, I laid my head against the window and quickly fell asleep.  
  
I don't know how long it took for her to get us to the school because, by the time I was woken up, we were already there; however, I suspected it only took about five minutes since it's only about a twenty minute walk. Nanako had already helped Kato and Katsuo get the gallons of Inui Juice out of the trunk, so all that was left was for me to help bring the two gallons to the tennis courts. The four of us, together, got the gallons of Inui Juice to the tennis courts in a little over six minutes.  
  
When we reached the tennis courts, Yukimura-buchou and Tsubaki-fukubuchou were already there waiting for us. Buchou said to us, "Go get changed, practice will be starting in half an hour."  
  
While we walked into the locker rooms to change, I heard fukubuchou say to Nanako, "Thank you for bringing them here..."  
  
I heard Nanako say to him, "My name is Nanako." I couldn't hear anything after that since we were already in the locker rooms, but I assume that he acknowledged her and what she said her name was.  
  
The three of us got changed quickly and put our schoolbags in our lockers. We left the locker room, dressed in our tennis uniforms, with our tennis bags in tow. Nanako seemed to have left by the time we walked out.  
  
Yukimura-buchou chuckled and said to me, "Your cousin seems like a nice person."  
  
I blushed and instinctively pulled my cap down, saying, "Arigatou."  
  
Before buchou could say anything else, Tsubaki-fukubuchou yelled, "Hey, I'm not setting this up all by myself!"  
  
The two of us hurried over to where the gallons would be set up. Tsubaki-fukubuchou had already labeled the gallon of Aozu with "quitters" and the gallon of Akazu with "slackers". I raised an eyebrow at him. He shrugged and pointed to Kato and Katsuo, "They told me which one was scariet than the other."  
  
I nodded, "Well, then, let's get this set up."  
  
Tsubaki-fukubuchou nodded before calling over Kato and Katsuo. With the five of us working together, we were finished setting up by 6:10 when Kazuki-senpai, Mizumaki-senpai, and Matsura-senpai arrived.  
  
Kazuki-senpai asked us, "Is that what you guys were talking about yesterday?"  
  
I answered him, "Yes, senpai. The red one labeled 'slackers' is Akazu and the blue one labeled 'quitters' is Aozu."  
  
Mizumaki-senpai and Matsura-senpai both took one look at the juices before gagging. Matsura-senpai said, "There's no way anyone would want to drink that."  
  
I chuckled, "Yes, but nobody besides Kato, Katsuo, and I know how terrifying those juices _really_ are." I paused before saying, "Only someone who has experienced Inui Juice first-hand knows the true terror." I finished by saying, "Those two juices are the only ones that former Seigaku regulars haven't developed an immunity for - they're that scary."  
  
Kazuki-senpai shuddered and said, "I don't even want to know."  
  
Everyone arrived for practice before I could say anything in response. Yukimura-buchou started the practice session before calling me over. I walked over to him and asked, "What is it, buchou?"  
  
He replied, "I'll need your help to administer the two juices. Tsubaki is needed to make sure that people know what their punishment is for losing, giving up, or simply slacking off. Mizuno-kun and Kachiro-kun still need a lot of practice, so I can't use them. You're the only person here that has actually dealt with this Inui Juice before so I'll need your help in distributing it to those who deserve it."  
  
I nodded and said, "I understand, Yukimura-buchou."  
  
I looked over at Tsubaki-fukubuchou and noticed that nobody was moving. I walked over to him and asked, "Why is nobody practicing?"  
  
He responded, "Practice can't be started until all regulars are there to begin practice. Besides, we always begin with a warm-up, which everyone does together."  
  
Yukimura-buchou yelled out, "Everyone, forty laps around the tennis courts." He looked around and called over some kid who was walking by. He handed them a stopwatch and said, "Make sure that each lap is completed in less than a minute. Get the names of everyone who can't finish a lap in one minute and write them down. On a separate list, keep the names of people who give up before finishing a lap." The person nodded and started the stopwatch when everyone started running. Ten laps later, some freshmen started falling down. Another ten laps, people started to slow down and were unable to finish a lap within a minute. After another ten laps, only the regulars were running and all the non-regulars were either collapsed on the ground or took too long to finish a lap and were told to retire. The regulars were the only ones to finish all forty laps.  
  
Yukimura-buchou dragged me over to where the kid with the stopwatch was standing. He thanked the kid and asked him for the lists. There were thirty people who couldn't finish on time - all of them being juniors or seniors. The list of people who just gave up was full of freshmen, with only three or four juniors or seniors amongst them.  
  
Yukimura-buchou nodded at me and I started filling up glasses with Akazu. When they were filled, Tsubaki-fukubuchou asked Katsuo and Kato to give them to the people who couldn't finish their laps on time. The Aozu was distributed next.  
  
The club members looked at their glasses. One third-year asked, "What are these for?"  
  
Tsubaki-fukubuchou growled at him, "All you need to know is that it's your punishment, so just drink it already."  
  
All of them looked at their glasses warily, taking deep breaths before drinking their juice in one huge gulp. Those who had Akazu screamed in agony. Those who were given Aozu simply became unconscious. Matsura-senpai gulped from behind me and said, "I'm glad we didn't have to drink that."  
  
Tsubaki-fukubuchou yelled at the people who were still conscious, "Drag everyone who fainted off of the courts so we can start the REAL practice."  
  
Someone groaned, "You mean that wasn't the practice?"  
  
Yukimura-buchou chuckled, "No, of course not - that was just the warm-up." All the conscious non-regulars groaned in agony.  
  
By the end of the morning practice, all of the juice was gone. Tsubaki-fukubuchou snorted, "At least now we have something we can threaten them with when they slack off."  
  
Yukimura-buchou disagreed with him, "I think we should just have Echizen-kun bring another batch with him whenever they do slack off."  
  
The fukubuchou raised an eyebrow at him, "Meaning?"  
  
Buchou rolled his eyes and replied, "If during one practice, they start slacking off - we tell Echizen to bring in some juice for the next practice."  
  
Tsubaki-fukubuchou nodded and said, "I see what you're getting at. They'll realize that everytime they slack off, Echizen will bring in some of the juice to practice the next day - and then they'll stop slacking off altogether."  
  
Yukimura-buchou responded, "Of course."  
  
Kazuki-senpai looked back and forth between them before finally saying, "I don't even want to know anymore."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nanako has been living with Ryoma for years now, so I thought it was only natural for him to start referring to her with familial terms. I imagine that she'd be like an older sister to him, hence calling her "aneki" - even though they're just cousins. Karupin doesn't have anything to do with the story, and probably won't come in until a time he needs comfort - same with Rinko. Nanjiroh will make random appearances for comic relief while Nanako will be there whenever Ryoma needs to get to practice early.
> 
> I didn't describe the actual practice in detail, and I apologize for that. I didn't really want to write about people collapsing from Akazu and Aozu in detail.


	7. The New Couple

** _Sae_ **

I walked out of my classroom to head over to my new Japanese class with the third-years. On my way, I ran into Yuniko. I smiled and greated her, "Ohayou, Yuni-chan."   
  
She smiled back at me and said, "Ohayou, Sae-chan. I'm guessing that you're heading over to your third-tear Japanese class right now. I'm heading over to history with the third-years from 3-C myself."   
  
I replied, "Ah. Ryo-chan takes English with 3-A since that's the class that's most advanced with English. I ran into him earlier and he said that he actually was able to stay awake."   
  
She nodded and said, "I guess you take Japanese with 3-A, yourself."   
  
I answered her, "Yes. I also take science and math with 2-A. Apparently my scores weren't high enough to move into the third-year courses."   
  
She frowned, "But I heard that Ryoma was taking science with the third-years. You most likely scored higher than him, so how are you NOT in a third-year course?"   
  
I shook my head, "He scored higher than me in science and history. I scored higher than him in math, and that's why I got moved up and not him." I paused for a bit and then said, "I actually heard some teachers talk about how he should be in an advanced third-year science class, but the administration supposedly shot that down because they wanted him to be able to have time to focus on his tennis."   
  
She pursed her lips and replied, "Then the only class they should have moved him up in is English."   
  
I put a sheepish smile on my face and said, "He actually slept through science and history too. They moved him up because they think the third-year courses might also keep him awake."   
  
Yuniko huffed, "In my opinion, sleeping in class should be grounds for being suspended from the tennis team."   
  
I glared at her, "You don't even play tennis. Why in the world would they take your advice?" I shook my head and then looked at her softly, "Besides, it's Yukimura-senpai's job to decide who can play and who can't. Tsubaki-senpai's opinion counts, too, of course. I've met both of them, though, and as long as he remains as one of the top 50 freshmen in terms of academics - they won't care if he falls asleep during class or not."   
  
She rolled her eyes at me, "Then they're being too lenient."   
  
I frowned at her, "Why do you dislike Ryoma so much, anyway? He never did anything to you."   
  
She growled at me, "He made you cry."   
  
I groaned in response, "Yuni-chan, that was over six years ago, and I forgave him for that. Besides, you and I both know that he never wanted to move away - and he never wanted to make me cry. He actually apologized for doing so when my family saw him off at the airport."   
  
It was her turn to frown at me. She replied, "I still think he's no good, and I don't know if I'll ever forgive him - but I can't control who you hang out with."   
  
I pouted, "It's not like he's a playboy. The only girl he really hangs out with is me."   
  
She sighed, "Okay, that's one good point he has about him - but I'm gonna go now, we both need to get to class!"   
  
Yuniko and I went our separate ways - for a reason I don't understand. Both of our classes would be in the same hallway, 3-C is right next to 3-A, but there are two staircases that lead to that hallway...maybe she just decided to use the other staircase. Oh well, maybe I'll ask her later when she's had a chance to calm down.   
  
When I reached the staircase, I saw a group of kids standing in the hallway. I had heard about them from Yukimura-senpai. They were known as the "populars" and consisted of the school's hottest couples. _I wish I could be one of them._ I shook my head frantically when that thought entered my mind. I glanced back at them, focusing on a guy with reddish hair that was more orange than anything. His name was Kuwabara Kazuma, and I had a massive crush on him.   
  
At that moment, one of the girls - I think her name was Higurashi Chi - pointed at me. The others looked in my direction, as if they were evaluating me for something I didn't know about. They must have seen something they liked because they nodded - Kuwabara-senpai even smiled at me!   
  
I turned around and walked up the stairs, frantically shaking my head along the way. _Dammit, Sae! You know that he, and the rest of the popular kids are bad news. Senpai-tachi already warned you about him. He's a playboy for kami's sake!_

_ **Kazuma** _

I groaned at my friends and asked, "Why does it have to be me? Can't it just as easily be Yusuke or Kurama?"   
  
Kurama shook his head, "Yusuke and I can't do it because we have girlfriends - it's not that hard to figure out. You're single, and we're not - you do the math." While he was saying this, he was hugging his girlfriend, Chi.   
  
I relented, "Fine, but that's the only reason I'll agree to being the one to 'date' the nerdy girl."   
  
Yusuke, holding Keiko - his girlfriend - close to himself, snorted at me, "We know you're just jealous, you bastard."   
  
Hiei quickly kissed Mizuki on the forehead before saying, "I'm with Yusuke on this one, you're jealous, Kuwabara."   
  
Glaring, I hissed at Hiei and Yusuke, "Whatever! I am so NOT jealous!"   
  
Chi giggled, "Whatever you say, Kuwabara-kun!"   
  
Mizuki asked the rest of us, "Shouldn't we be finding some girl to become Kuwabara's girlfriend?"   
  
Chi smiled and said, "Good idea, Zuki-chan," she looked around for a bit before pointing to a girl by the staircase who was staring at us, "How about her? She should work."   
  
The rest of us quickly gave her a once-over before nodding at Chi. I said, "She seems like your typical goody-two-shoes."   
  
Yusuke nodded at my assessment and said, "She's perfect for our plan."   
  
Mizuki looked at both of us and nodded. She then said, "Her name is Kaidoh Sae, class 1-A. After the evaluation tests, she was moved into the 3-A Japanese class," at this we all looked at her and Chi since they were in that class as well - but she ignored our looks and said, "She has two best friends: Tachibana Yuniko and Echizen Ryoma."   
  
Kurama pursed his lips and said, "I heard about that Echizen kid from my classmates, Yukimura-sam and Tsubaki-san. He's one of three freshmen that made it as a regular on our school tennis team."   
  
Hiei scoffed, "Okay, and what do we know about the girl?"   
  
Keiko shook her head and said, "Not much, but a lot of kids seemed to have come up with a nickname for her. She's known as the Ice Princess. I heard a rumor that she was related to some guy known as the Ice Emperor on her mother's side of the family, which might be why they decided to call her the Ice Princess."   
  
Kurama nodded at Keiko and replied, "The only Ice Emperor that I've heard of is the tennis player Atobe Keigo - and I heard that his mother did have a sister who gave birth to one child. I can only assume that child is Tachibana-chan."   
  
Hiei nodded, "That makes sense, I suppose."   
  
Chi laughed at their conversation before nudging me, "This should be easy enough for you," she paused to catch her breath and stop her laughter before saying, "I even heard that she has a thing for you, Kuwabara-kun."   
  
I rolled my eyes and replied to Chi, "Oh, shut up! She's way too much of a goody-goody for me."   
  
"Don't tell her to shut up!" Kurama exclaimed as he slapped me on the back of my head. He continued his statement by saying, "Whether you like it or not, you'll have to turn on your so-called charm anyway. In case you've forgotten, we need her to be your new girlfriend if Hiei's plan is going to work."   
  
Chi just hugged Kurama and said, "Thanks for defending me, anata."   
  
Hiei rolled his eyes at them, "Quit it, you lovebirds!" Then he looked at me and asked, "You think you're ready for this, Kuwabara?"   
  
I glared at Kurama, who didn't even notice me, as I answered Hiei, "Yeah, I guess I am ready."   
  
Hiei smirked as the bell rang, "Good, then I'll see all of you later." Before he left for his own class, he grabbed Mizuki and quickly whispered something in her ear that made her giggle.   
  
One by one, they all left, leaving me all by my lonesome to think over Hiei's plan. _Wait, what?! I can't think right now - I'M LATE FOR CLASS!_

_ **Chi**   
_

At lunch time, I found our usual table and quickly sat down between my boyfriend and best friend. I greeted them both, "Hey!"   
  
Mizuki smiled and greeted me back, "Hey, Chi! What's up?"   
  
I rolled my eyes and answered, "Ugh, nothing. I hate school."   
  
Kurama sighed and gave me a hug, "I know how you feel. I think I might just die at school if you weren't here."   
  
I gave him a quick kiss and said, "Aww, thanks baby."   
  
Hiei came into the cafeteris and quickly sat down next to Mizuki, who greeted him, "How was your day, Hiei?"   
  
Hiei answered her, "Boring, what did you expect? This is the most fun I've had all day!"   
  
Mizuki pouted as she moved to give her boyfriend a huge bear hug, "Aw, that sucks!"   
  
Hiei chuckled before kissing Mizuki, "Eh, it's not too bad - at least you're here."   
  
Yusuke interrupted their moment when he asked Keiko, "Why don't I get a kiss?"   
  
Keiko rolled her eyes and said, "I'll kiss you when I feel like kissing you, baka!"   
  
Mizuki and I were laughing at Yusuke's misery when Kuwabara walked by and said, "Hey, guys!"   
  
Since Mizuki and I were still laughing, he boys and Keiko greeted him, "hey, Kuwabara!"   
  
Once Mizuki and I calmed down, Hiei went straight to the point and asked Kuwabara, "So, are you ready to ask her out?"   
  
Kuwabara looked at him and answered, "You're talking about Sae-chan, right?" At Hiei's nod, he said, "Yeah, I'm ready."   
  
Kurama raised an eyebrow at him and asked, jokingly, "You're not nervous, are you?"   
  
Yusuke joined in on Kurama's joke and said, "Yeah, because if you are nervous - I'll be laughing my ass off!"   
  
With a serious look on his face, Kuwabara replied, "I'm not nervous. She's just the first girl I'll be asking out that isn't extremely hot."   
  
Still laughing, Mizuki said, "Yeah, sure. Whatever."   
  
Hiei pushed Kuwabara toward the table Sae was sitting at and said, "Go ask her out, already!" When Kuwabara looked like he would walk to Sae's table on his own, Hiei sat back down and told Mizuki, "That guy is such a dumbass." Mizuki simply giggled and nodded before hugging him.

_ **Sae** _

As I walked to lunch, I found Yuniko and dragged her over to sit with me and Ryoma, who was already at a table with the tennis regulars. The two of us took out our bentos when somebody surprised me by tapping me on the shoulder. The third-year tennis regulars were glaring at the person behind me so I turned around and saw Kuwabara Kazuma standing there.   
  
I opened my mouth to ask him what he wanted when he said, "You're Kaidoh Sae, right?" At my nod, he introduced himself, "I'm Kuwabara Kazuma."   
  
Blushing, I stuttered, "Yes, my name's Sae..."   
  
He coughed and asked, "Well, I was wondering if you wanted to be my girlfriend? I've liked you for awhile now, and..."   
  
I had already started hyperventilating. Before he could finish talking, I answered excitedly, "I would love that!"   
  
He smiled at me and pointed to the 'popular' table when he said, "That's awesome. Why don't you come sit with me and my friends?"   
  
I blanched at that and looked at the people I was sitting with right now. All of them were giving me a look that said, _Don't go there, they're bad news_. I gulped and asked him, "Could Ryoma and Yuniko come too?" The tennis regulars all gave me looks of relief when I asked if my two best friends could come with me.   
  
He replied, "I don't think there's enough room, sorry."   
  
I looked at the guys again, silently begging them to let me go.

Ryoma glared at me and said, "If you want to go so bad, then just go." I squealed in excitement and went to join Kuwabara at the popular table. When I sat down, though, I felt sad. This was the first time Ryoma had ever glared at me like that.

_ **Ryoma** _

Yuniko turned towards me and glared, "Why did you tell her to go?! You know they're bad news!"   
  
I sighed, "If I didn't let her go, she'd resent us for not giving her a chance to be with him."   
  
Yukimura-buchou raised an eyebrow at me and said, "I can understand why you'd let her go sit with him," and he paused for a bit before asking, "But why didn't you try to stop her from agreeing to go out with him?"   
  
I shook my head, "You saw how she was acting. Even if I tried to stop her from agreeing, she would have agreed anyway."   
  
Tsubaki-fukubuchou nodded at me and said, "The only thing you can do for her now is be there for her when he inevitably hurts her."   
  
Everyone at our table, including Yuniko, agreed with him. We all knew that she had to learn from this mistake on her own.

_ **Mizuki** _

Kuwabara brought Saw over to our table and all of us introduced ourselves to her. When the bell rang, I said to her, "It was nice to meet you, Sae-chan. You should come sit with us tomorrow, too."   
  
All of us, except for Sae, ditched our next class.

_ **Hiei** _

I did something I rarely did. I praised Kuwabara, "That was smooth, dude, Good job!"   
  
Kuwabara grinned, obviously proud of his work, and said, "Thanks, man."   
  
Keiko asked, "So when are we doing the prank on Konomi-kochou?"   
  
I answered, "Tomorrow morning at 5am. First, we'll take the car from his house's driveway, and then we'll put it on the roof."   
  
Kurama groaned, "That means we all need to get some sleep tonight."   
  
Mizuki interruped and said, "We should head back to school, the last class is about to start."   
  
Chi nodded and said, "Yeah, let's go."   
  
As we got up, I grabbed Mizuki and pulled her close to me and whispered into her ear, "I love you." She giggled in response and we all left to go to our last class.

_ **Ryoma** _

I went straight home after our afternoon practice. Normally, I'd go with Katsuo and Kato to the tennis club that Kato's dad works at - but I just wasn't in the mood today. As I was laying down on my bed, I sighed in frustration. For some reason, I couldn't help but think about what happened at lunch today. I screamed into my pillow, hoping it would calm me down. When it didn't do anything, I banged my head back against my wall.   
  
This caused my oyaji to walk in and ask, "What's wrong, seishounen?"   
  
I snorted in response, "Even if I told you, you wouldn't be able to help - baka oyaji."   
  
He raised his eyebrow at me, "It's Sae-chan, isn't it?"   
  
My eyes widened in response. I stammered, "How did...you...know?"   
  
He chuckled, "Seishounen, I've known that she was special to you since before I moved us to America when you were ten. She's probably the only girl in the world that could make you act like this."   
  
I groaned and asked him, "Why does it hurt?"   
  
He stopped laughing and asked me another question, "What hurts?"   
  
I put my hand against my chest and told him about how she was asked out today by some senior and how excited she was to be going out with him. I told him about how for some reason I couldn't get it out of my head no matter how much I wanted to. I told him how I wanted her to learn from her own mistakes since I knew he'd hurt her in the end simply because of his reputation.   
  
He sighed, "Oi, Ryoma. I can't tell you why it hurts...because I think, deep down, you already know. Just do what you always do when you're frustrated - crush your tennis opponents, all of them."   
  
I nodded and said, "Thanks...oyaji."   
  
He smiled and ruffled my hair, "No problem, seishounen - what kind of father would I be if I didn't listen to your problems every once in awhile?"   
  
I growled at him, "Get out, oyaji!"   
  
He just laughed and walked out of my room. Despite my anger, I was smiling. It felt better to let it all out, even if it wasn't to the person that actually needed to hear me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter should have been chapter five, but when I read the original - I realized that I had to add in another chapter for this to be able to flow well with the story. I originally intended for there to be an advanced Japanese course (the equivalent of English for American and British people), but it wouldn't fit since I was going to put her with Chi and Mizuki - and they're not in the advanced course, so I scrapped the class altogether.
> 
> This ended up being chapter seven because if I added all the stuff from the original "New Couple" chapter from FFN, then chapter six would have been way too long. Chapter six ended up being what it was almost completely by accident. I brought in the Inui Juice last chapter simply because of a small whim. I apologize for that.
> 
> As you can see, a certain someone is starting to grow up.


	8. Cheating?!

** _Sae_ **

I was trying to do my homework, but all I could think about was Kuwabara-senpai asking me out at lunch today. I needed to talk about it with someone...but who?   
  
Ryo-chan? No, he'd probably say 'Mada mada dane' and then hang up the phone.   
Kaoru? He'd say to ditch the guy because I'm sure he knows about Kuwabara's reputation!   
Momo-senpai? He'd encourage it in public to spite Kaoru, but would probably tell me to ditch him as soon as Kaoru's not looking and out of hearing range.   
  
I sighed in frustration when I realized that **most** of my friends were boys and would most likely discourage me from going out with him. I picked up my cellphone and dialed the number for the **only** person that might be willing to help me, Yuniko. I put the phone to my ear and waited for her to pick up.   
  
_"Moshi moshi."_   
"Hey, it's me."   
_"Oh, what's up, Sae?"_   
"Not much, really. I just want to know what you think Kazuma might want to do for our first date."   
_"Um...who's Kazuma?"_   
"Kuwabara-senpai! He asked me out at lunch today, remember?"   
_"You're the one who agreed to date him, Sae? You tell me what you think he'll do. I'll tell you one thing, though - the guy's a playboy and will probably cheat on you after the first date. Ryoma would tell you the same thing if you asked him...but he'd never discourage you."_   
"No, he won't, Yuni-chan! Stop talking bad about him, it's really important to me. And don't act like you KNOW what Ryo-chan would say!"   
_"Sae, all of the tennis team's regulars could tell you what Ryoma would say - he's an open book to them. But enough about him! If you want to know what Kuwabara-senpai wants to do on the first date, why don't you ask him yourself?"_   
"Yuni-chan! It'll be so embarrassing to ask him that."   
_"Only because most guys want it to be a surprise. Ugh, you're putting too much thought into this!"_   
"Am not!"   
_"Are too! I'm gonna hang up now. If I stay on the phone any longer, I might end up acting like you when I get a boyfriend. Ja ne."_   
"Wait, does that mean you like --?"   
  
I frowned at the dial tone that came mid-question. I pouted, wondering who Yuniko could possibly like. Kaoru and Momo-senpai are like big brothers to her. She **avoids** Fuji-senpai because he's close to Ryo-chan, so I know it's not him either. That means it's one of the guys that goes to our school, probably one of the tennis regulars - since they're the only ones she sees on a semi-regular basis. I sighed and stared at the ceiling. I don't have a lot of contact with the tennis regulars since the only reason I know them at all is because of Ryo-chan being one of them. I sometimes talk to Kachiro-kun and Mizuno-kun in the freshmen hallway, but other than those two - I don't know them at all. Maybe I could ask Ryo-chan....   
  
I pulled out my phone and quickly sent Ryo-chan a text message. Once that was done, I put my phone away and I was finally able to concentrate on my homework.

_ **Ryoma** _

I got off of my bed when I saw the light of my phone flashing on my desk. It was a text message from Sae: _Ryo-chan! I need your help._   
  
I typed out a reply: _With what?_   
  
She quickly replied back: _Finding out which tennis regular she has a crush on! Now shoo, I need to finish the homework for tomorrow._   
  
I rolled my eyes at Sae's childishness. Then, I chuckled and whispered to myself, "So, that's what Yumiko-nee was talking about?" (1)   
  
I laughed and then exited out of the message before dialing Fuji-senpai's number. I put it on speaker so I could work on my homework at the same time.   
  
_"Moshi moshi."_   
"Konbawa, Fuji-senpai."   
_"I thought I told you to call me Syuu-chan, Ryoma-kun."_   
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"   
_"I'll get my way eventually. Do you need help with something?"_   
"Yumiko-nee's prediction came true again."   
_"Oh, the one about the girl contacting you in the middle of the night?"_   
"Ah. Sae wants me to help her find out who Yuniko likes."   
_"Is Sae-chan that girl in the picture on your desk?"_   
"...Yes."   
_"Then who's Yuniko-chan?"_   
"A childhood friend. She'll deny it though - she's been holding a grudge against me for the past six years."   
_"You like her, then?"_   
"Yadda!"   
_"So it's Sae-chan?"_   
"Urusai!"   
_"You're so obvious, Ryoma-kun."_   
"You're not helping, Fuji-senpai."   
_"You haven't told me what you needed help with, yet..."_   
"Sae seems to think that I could just snap my fingers and have Yuniko let me get close enough to tell who she likes."   
_"But surely Sae-chan knows that Yuniko-chan is mad at you?"_   
"Yuniko tells her everyday!"   
_"Then maybe she wants you to observe your teammates and tell her who you THINK she likes."_   
"I never mentioned my teammates."   
_"Nee-san predicted that a girl you know would end up with one of the tennis regulars from your school."_   
"Yumiko-nee is being creepy again."   
_"I'm sure you're used to it by now...I'll let you get back to your business."_   
"Arigatou, Fuji-senpai."   
  
I smiled to myself. Despite how sadistic Fuji-senpai acts towards more people, talking with him usually cheers me up. I looked down at my homework...only the English homework was completed. I shook my head and then breezed through the rest of my homework assignments that were to be turned in tomorrow. Once they were completed, I put the assignments into a folder and then shoved the aforementioned folder into my schoolbag before going to bed. I had morning practice the next day, after all."

_ **Kazuma** _

Hiei and everyone else came over to my house at around 4:30am. I yawned and asked, "How are we doing this, again?"   
  
Hiei answered, "It's simple. We'll all go over to his house. Mizuki and Chi will provide a distraction while we hotwire the car and drive it over to the school. Then, we'll put it on the roof and meet at the school entrance."   
  
Then, Yusuke said to me, "It's not that hard, Kuwabara."   
  
Chi assured us, "Yeah! Zuki-chan and I able to distract anyone!"   
  
I simply rolled my eyes in response.

_ **Mizuki** _

When we were in front of Konomi-kochou's house, I motioned for everyone to hide and I silently told Chi to follow me. The two of us rang the doorbell and waited for him to answer the door. When he came out, he said, "It's a surprise to see you ladies up this early."   
  
I replied, "Well, Chi-chan wanted to sell you some magazines from her mother's company."   
  
Chi nodded at what I told Konomi-kochou and added, "They're really cheap too, so it shouldn't be a problem for someone like yourself."   
  
I looked behind me and noticed that kochou's car was already gone and then whispered into Chi's ear, "Phase one, complete."   
  
Chi minutely nodded at me. Konomi-kochou said, "Give me a catalog of the available magazines and I'll think about it."   
  
The two of us nodded at him and Chi actually gave him a catalog of magazines before we left his house. Once we were out of his hearing range, I gave her a pointed look and asked, "You actually keep your mother's magazine catalogs on-hand?"   
  
She answered, "Yes, because when he does order them - he'll actually get his magazines and he will never realize that we were only a distraction."

_ **Hiei** _

Kurama, Yusuke, and I were sitting inside Konomi-kochou's car after we put the car on the roof when Yusuke groaned and asked, "What's taking them so long?"   
  
Before I could tell him to shut up, the girls arrived and Mizuki told him, "We're here already, so calm down! You're so childish sometimes, Yusuke."   
  
Chi looked around and then asked, "Where did Kuwabara-kun go?"   
  
Kurama answered her, "He went to Kaidoh-chan's house to ask her to cover for us."   
  
I rolled my eyes, "Why doesn't he just dump her?"   
  
Mizuki and Chi both glared at me. Mizuki said, "He can't do that - they haven't even gone on their first date yet, baka!"   
  
I scoffed, "Whatever. It's not like I care - he didn't even want to do it in the first place."   
  
We looked behind us and saw that Yusuke and Keiko were making out in the backseat of kochou's car. I opened the door on my side of the car and helped Mizuki get out as well. After doing so, I motioned for Chi and Kurama to follow us - putting my index finger against my lips, signaling them to keep quiet.

_ **Sae** _

The doorbell rang and when I answered it, I was rather surprised to see Kuwabara-senpai standing there. I squealed happily and jumped on him, "Kazuma!"   
  
When I got off him, he gave me look and said, "If Konomi-kochou mentions that he found his car on the roof - it wasn't me and my friends, got it? If you tell anyone that we did it, you and I are through!"   
  
My eyes widened in surprise. _Konomi-kochou's car...roof...kami-sama, please don't tell me that Kazuma and his friends somehow put kochou's car on the roof. They seemed so nice yesterday...maybe I should have listened to my senpai-tachi._ I shook my head frantically before saying, "Don't worry, Kazuma - I won't tell on you." _I refuse to admit that I was wrong about you, so I suppose I'll just have to cover for you...for the time being, at least._   
  
He nodded at me and said, "hey, thanks...wait, how did you know it was us?"   
  
I looked up at him and said, "You made it kind of obvious."   
  
He asked, "How?"   
  
I giggled, "If you hadn't been involved, you wouldn't have known ahead of time. The only people that go to school before classes start at 8am are the sports teams for morning practice - and even then, they don't get there until 6:30am most of the time."   
  
He groaned, "Great, just great." He walked in and banged his head against the wall. After about two minutes, he turned around and looked me in the eyes. He asked, "Could you tell your friend, Echizen, to blame it on someone else?"   
  
I tilted my head to the side and asked, "Why would I need to do that?"   
  
He exclaimed, "The tennis team hates us - especially the buchou and fukubuchou!"   
  
I smiled at him, "Ryo-chan will deny knowing who it is. If he looks like he'll tell, I can just give him my puppy dog face and he'll change the topic to something else if it means I'll be happy."

_ **Kurama** _

All of us hid before the normal student population started arriving at 7:45am. We all looked up at the roof, feigning surprise, to blend in with everyone else. I could feel someone glaring at us. I looked around and saw the tennis regulars giving us a knowing look. The freshman with dark green hair told something to their blue-haired buchou, which lead him to give us a dark look before they all went inside to head to class.   
  
I looked around and then asked aloud, "Where's Kuwabara?"   
  
Yusuke snorted, "That baka? He's probably hanging out with his 'girlfriend' so that she thinks he really likes her."   
  
Hiei laughed, "As if! He knows that we wouldn't mix well with her."   
  
Just then, Kuwabara and Sae approached us - with another girl following behind them. Mizuki gave the new girl a pointed look before asking Sae, "Who's the girl behind you?"   
  
Sae rolled her eyes and answered, "Seiryuu Keira, a friend of one of my cousins - from my mother's side of the family, of course...she's a senior like you guys."   
  
Hiei went up to her (Keira) and said, "Since we'll probably see you around anyway, why don't you just hang out with us?"   
  
Mizuki glared at him, "You better not be flirting with her."   
  
Hiei kissed Mizuki on the lips to show that he had no intentions of leaving her for Keira. Keira, herself, simply shrugged and said, "Whatever. I guess I'll hang out with you guys - I don't know anyone here, anyway."

_ **Ryoma** _

As soon as we walked into the school building, I punched one of the walls with my right hand...or at least, I tried to - Tsubaki-fukubuchou stopped me before my hand got even close to the wall. Yukimura-buchou simply said, "Calm down, Echizen-kun."   
  
I just groaned in response, "I can't believe that Sae asked me to cover for that bastard."   
  
Tsubaki-fukubuchou sighed, "There's nothing you can do about it. If we tell, she'll hate you. If we don't tell, then you can be there for her when the bastard breaks her heart in two."   
  
Yukimura-buchou nodded, "Just be patient, Echizen-kun. We know you want to protect her from him, but she needs to learn how to protect herself."   
  
I sighed in response and just leaned against the wall that was behind me. Right then, I saw the bastard walk in with his friends - Sae was nowhere to be found. I raised my eyebrow at him, giving him a look that said, "Don't you dare hurt her." He just rolled his eyes in response. I just shook my head at him when I saw him walk towards a blonde girl - one that I recognized as someone who has constantly tried to emotionally destroy Sae - and I frowned at the thought of her successfully breaking Sae again. I was about to walk over and punch her in the face, but Kazuki-senpai held me back.   
  
Tsubaki-fukubuchou looked me in the eyes and said, "Don't do anything until you have actual proof that the new girl has done something wrong."   
  
Before I could reply, Kato and Katsuo screamed in unison, "Look over there, senpai-tachi."   
  
All of us looked where they were pointing. My eyes widened in anger. The bastard was kissing her! He was kissing a girl that **wasn't** Sae. I asked Tsubaki-fukubuchou, "Can I hit her, now?"   
  
He shook his head and responded, "No, but you can tell Tachibana-chan and SHE can punch her if she wants to." (2)   
  
I relented, "Then, can I hit him?"   
  
Yukimura-buchou said, "No. We don't know who started that yet - Kaidoh-chan might get mad if you hit him before finding out who kissed who."   
  
I nodded, but, under my breath, I muttered, "I already know he's the one that fucking started it." I sighed in frustration and then looked away from the kissing couple when I saw Yuniko looking right past me...and I knew that she saw it.

_ **Yuniko** _

I could see them. I could see that bastard, Kuwabara-senpai, kissing that slutty friend of Sae's cousin. Not only that, but Ryoma was looking right at them - not doing anything. I marched over to him, grabbed his arm, and growled, "Why are you just standing here?"   
  
He pursed his lips and answered, "Sae will get mad at me if I try to do anything to that bastard without finding out who actually started it."   
  
I thought for a few minutes before asking, "What if we do something to the girl?"   
  
He just looked at me before saying, "I'm a guy - I'll get in a lot of trouble if I hit her."   
  
I rolled my eyes at him and said, "Then, I'll hit her - you'll just socially destroy her."   
  
He asked me, "How am I supposed to do that?"   
  
I smirked, "They're popular because they have money. You and the other tennis regulars are considered popular because you've brought honor to this school through you tennis skills. The school administrators actually like you - if you tell them that you think Keira might be doing something bad, they might let you look through her files - because I know they let Yukimura-senpai do that - and you might be able to find something that could utterly DESTROY her." (3)   
  
Before he could reply, Yukimura-senpai chuckled, "Interesting. You can count on all of the tennis regulars to help you with this, Tachibana-chan." Tsubaki-senpai, who was standing next to him, looked me in the eyes and nodded - making me blush. Ryoma looked at me for a second and hummed, and I knew that he saw it. (4)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) - In chapter two, it was mentioned that Fuji was like a big brother to him. Here, it's revealed that it extends to the rest of his family. He goes over to their house a lot, and Fuji's parents have become like a second set of parents for Ryoma - makes Yuuta happy because it means that he can be the big brother for once.  
> (2) - Small reference to domestic violence laws. If a man hits a woman, they get in a lot of trouble. However, if a man hits another man or a woman hits another woman, they're typically ignored.  
> (3) - Bit of a reference to Yanagi and Inui from canon. However, rather than having Ryoma and the other Sengoku regulars stalk Keira to find something to ruin her, I made it so that they were so well-liked by the staff that the staff willingly gives them information on students that they're interested in.  
> (4) - Look back at the beginning of the chapter. End of phone call between Yuniko and Sae, and the text messages that Sae sent to Ryoma.


	9. The Preliminaries

_ **Ryoma** _

My alarm woke me up at around 9am. I turned it off and was about to go back to sleep when I remembered that the district preliminaries were today and that Sengoku would be signing in at 10am. With that realization, I got out of bed - rushing to the bathroom to take a quick shower. After that, I went back to my room and changed into my red and black tennis jersey. Once dressed, I glanced back at the clock and saw that it was 9:20am. Then, I quickly went downstairs to see if I could get a quick bite to eat for breakfast. I chuckled to myself when I saw that Nanako must have thought ahead and prepared my favorite Japanese breakfast before I even came down. I took my time to eat since I was quite confident that I wouldn't be late to the matches, for once - I was even late when I was the captain of my own team. Fifteen minutes later, my food was done and the dishes were in the sink. I ran to the front door and quickly put on my tennis shoes before leaving the house.   
  
I looked around to make sure my baka oyaji wasn't there to distract me and make me late again. When I realized that he wasn't in the front yard, I ran through the gate and headed towards the tennis courts where the preliminaries would be held. I reached my destination, Shikamori Tennis Park, after about twenty minutes of walking. (1)   
  
Kato and Katsuo laughed when they saw me. Kato even said, "You're actually on time for once, Ryoma-kun."   
  
I blushed and screamed at him, "Urusai!"   
  
Yukimura-buchou chuckled at our antics before saying, "Let's go, everyone!" He lead us inside the tennis park and stopped at the sign-in table. He said to the tournament official, "Sengoku, here with eight regulars." The tournament official nodded and handed him a packet of papers, which buchou handed to Tsubaki-fukubuchou. With that done, the eight of us walked away - following Yukimura-buchou to a clearing.   
  
He coughed and then said, "Today is the start of the district preliminaries. Whether or not we participate in the district tournament depends on the result of today's matches."   
  
Tsubaki-fukubuchou nodded and, after taking a quick glance at the packet he had been given earlier, announced, "Our first match is against Gyokurin. Yukimura will announce the line-up."   
  
Yukimura did just that, "Doubles 2: Kachiro-Mizuno pair, Doubles 1: Kazuki-Tsubaki pair, Singles 3: Mizumaki, Singles 2: Echizen, Singles 1: Me." He stopped to let us process the information he had just given us and then said, "As last year's winners, we will have to play all five matches even if we win the first three."   
  
All of us nodded to let him know that we understood what he was saying. Then, Kato turned towards me and asked, "Who do you think will be playing Doubles 2 for Gyokurin?"   
  
I pursed my lips and replied, "Most likely Fukawa and Izumi. They're the best doubles pair that they have. They'll want to bring the morale to their side quickly by winning the first match." I paused for a bit before continuing, "They had already graduated from middle school when you two debuted as a doubles pair so they have no idea how good you are. They probably think you're like me and can't play doubles."   
  
Kato laughed, "Oh yeah. The only reason you beat them three years ago was because you and Momochan-senpai split the court in half and treated it like singles."   
  
Katsuo shook his head and said, "I don't know about that. I remember Ryuzaki-sensei forcing him to play a doubles match with Kaidoh-senpai as his partner once, and they won without having to split the court in half."   
  
I muttered under my breath, "It was probably a fluke."   
  
Yukimura-buchou walked towards us and told Kato and Katsuo, "Doubles 2 is starting soon!"   
  
Kato and Katsuo nodded, "Yes, buchou!" The two of them took out their tennis rackets and then walked out onto the tennis court,   
  
Like I predicted, Fukawa and Izumi were playing Doubles 2 for Gyokurin. They actually managed to win two games against Kato and Katsuo, but I could tell from the look in Katsuo's eyes that he let them win. Kato looked at him and let out a rare smirk when Katsuo nodded.   
  
After that...it was like watching manslaughter. Gyokurin couldn't even win another point after winning their second game. Kato and Katsuo weren't just beating them - they were thrashing them. I almost wanted to go in there and make them stop, but then I remembered that _they were our enemies_. I shouldn't feel sorry for them, but they should've known that they drew the short end of the stick when they were matched up against us.   
  
Four minutes later, Doubles 2 ended with a final score of 6 - 2. They walked off the courts to stand where Yukimura-buchou and I were situated, while Kazuki-senpai and Tsubaki-fukubuchou were about to walk in. Yukimura-buchou nodded at Tsubaki-fukubuchou, most likely telling him to not play around with his opponent. After five minutes, Doubles 1 went to Sengoku with a final score of 6 - 0.   
  
Singles 3 was quick too, but wasn't nearly as brutal as the previous two matches. Mizumaki-senpai's opponent was easily able to return some of his balls, but the outcome still ended up being the same. We ended the round with a final score of 6 - 4. However, rules state that we have to play all five matches since we were given a "BYE" for the first round of the tournament.   
  
My opponent in Singles 2 wasn't anything special. It was nothing compared to my singles debut in middle school. He didn't have any special moves or techniques. It seemed like all he knew was the basics. After about three minutes, when the score reached 3 - 0, in my favor, I narrowed my eyes at him - daring him to try something more challenging. I showed him my Twist Serve, which he was powerless to return. That game was won completely with service aces. The next was won with return aces. Before the sixth and most likely final game, I growled at him, "Get serious, already!" This time he was actually able to return my serve, but just barely - since he accidentally lobbed it. I returned his accidental lob with my Drive C just for fun. He managed a clean return with my next serve, so I started hitting deep at the baseline, tiring him out as the game continued. That point was won when he accidentally netted the ball. The next two points were service aces since he was too tired to even try to return my Twist Serve at the time. I was actually a bit disappointed when the referee announced, "Game and match to Sengoku's Echizen, 6 games to love!"   
  
When I stepped off the courts, Yukimura-buchou looked at me and said, "You look upset."   
  
I looked back and replied, "Not upset, just bored."   
  
Singles 1 obviously ended with 6 - 0. Yukimura-buchou had wasted no time in stripping his opponent of all of his senses. The match had been decided before the players had stepped onto the courts.   
  
Both of our teams followed standard tournament etiquette and we thanked each other for the match. The eight of us headed toward another court to see the match between two potential opponents - Kakinoki and Fudomine. Most of the members of Fudomine were the same ones that I had faced in my first and second year of middle school, but for some reason I couldn't recognize their new captain; Kakinoki, on the other hand, was a team that I had never encountered. I sighed. It didn't really matter to me who we ended up playing as long as their players were better than Gyokurin - Fudomine wouldn't disappoint me, but I can't say much for the other guys.   
  
We found out who our next opponent would be when the referee finally announced, "Fudomine advances!" (2)   
  
The Fudomine member with the 'Spot' technique walked over to me and said, "Ah, Echizen-kun, I wasn't expecting you here. I thought you'd be playing for Seigaku with the rest of your former senpai. Oh well, we can't do anything about it. I hope you like losing because Fudomine will be winning this year. We may not have Tachibana-senpai anymore, but out new captain is just as strong as he was. I can't wait to see the look on your face when you lose to my Spot this -"   
  
The redhead that Kaidoh-senpai defeated three years ago, Kamio-san, screamed at him, "Shinji!"   
  
Shinji-san looked and Kamio-san before turning towards us to say, "I apologize." After his brief apology, he walked of with Kamio and the rest of his team - most likely to discuss the line-up.   
  
Yukimura-buchou hummed, "Hmm...Fudomine is one of the tougher opponents, but not tough enough to win against us. We'll have Matsura and Mizumaki play Doubles 2 this time around. Kachiro and Mizuno can take Doubles 1...I'm sure one of those two pairs can counter against the Hadoukyuu. For Singles, we'll have Echizen, Kazuki, and Tsubaki - I'll be reserve. I won't be needed for this match anyway. We'll close the round with Singles 3."   
  
My eyes widened in surprise at Yukimura-buchou's last statement, but only for a moment. However, I knew that he saw the look on my face. Kato and Katsuo's odd looks towards me let me know that they had seen my surprise as well. I sighed and then glared at Kato, forcing him to be my warm-up partner.   
  
By the time I finished warming up, Kato was almost completely exhausted - making Katsuo a bit unhappy. I didn't understand why, really...Kato had about five minutes before the match against Fudomine started, and they were playing Doubles 1 so Kato should have more than enough time to recuperate.   
  
Katsuo sighed, "Ryoma-kun, you know Kato-kun isn't nearly as intense with his training as you are."   
  
Before I could reply, Yukimura-buchou cut in and said, "He should be. I know about your plan to become **Sengoku's Three Monsters** , and I'll tell you right now that if you, Mizuno, and Kachiro don't step it up - it will remain nothing more than a fantasy. As it is right now, Echizen-kun is the only one of you three that might be able to make the **three monsters** a reality." He paused for a bit before looking Katsuo directly in the eyes, "If you think you can be as good as one of the former fiends of Seigaku without increasing your training, you've got another thing coming." Then, Yukimura-buchou sighed and turned towards me to say, "Echizen, show them what I mean in the match against Fudomine."   
  
I nodded at him and said, "Fine."   
  
Five minutes later, and the Doubles 2 match against Fudomine began. I watched with a little bit of intrigue. Kamio and Shinji were playing Doubles 2 this time around, and they put up a good fight against Mizumaki-senpai and Matsura-senpai - too good to be honest. At that thought, I quietly laughed. It shouldn't be a surprise that Kamio and Shinji were putting up a fight - unlike senpai-tachi, they were an established doubles pair. I might be more surprised if our pair won this round. Yukimura-buchou wouldn't like that at all - or, that's what I had thought until I took a quick glance at his eyes when the referee announced the score as 4 - 1 to Fudomine.   
  
To be honest, the look in buchou's eyes surprised me. It was a knowing look - almost as if he wanted it to happen. The question is: _why?_ When in middle school, Rikkaidai almost always ended the match by Singles 3 - the exceptions being buchou's first year, and the times Rikkaidai faced Seigaku. It made no sense to me why he'd make it so that we'd have to go to Singles 2 in order to win the round - no sense at all. After a few minutes of pondering, I remembered that he told me to show Kato and Katsuo what he meant during the match against Fudomine. It was then that I realized something and my eyes widened in shock. _He intended for Kato and Katsuo to lose their match._ I know he hadn't been lying when he said they might be able to counter the Hadoukyuu, but he never said that they would win...he manipulated this match so I'd **have** to play seriously to win. I almost groaned at the realization that this match was practically fixed - buchou was making it so that I'd be the one who decided whether we'd win or lose, the other four couldn't be blamed because they could afford to lose while I couldn't. (3) Behind my back, I crossed my fingers - wishing for a miracle from kami-sama that would let Mizumaki-senpai and Matsura-senpai win this match.   
  
Unfortunately, luck was not on my side. Doubles 2 ended with a score of 6 - 2 in favor of Fudomine. When Doubles 1 began, I mentally prayed that Yukimura-buchou's words had struck a cord. If they managed to win, the match wouldn't ride on the outcome of my Singles 3 slot. However, as Doubles 1 played on, I knew that my prayers were not going to answered. We would lose Doubles 1 and it would be up to me to keep us from elimination. It's not that I thought I would lose - I've just never been the one to decide whether or not we'd be eliminated. I shook my head in frustration. I couldn't think like this... _Sengoku must not lose!_   
  
Doubles 1 ended in a victory for Fudomine with a final score of 6 - 1. Kato and Katsuo managed to counter against Ishida's Hadoukyuu, but that was the only accomplishment that they made with that match. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths before taking out my tennis racket and removing the Sengoku regulars jacket from my body. I took another deep breath and opened my eyes before slowly stepping onto the tennis courts.   
  
I quickly checked the strings on my racket before getting a look at my opponent. I would be facing their new captain - most likely a foreigner, if one goes by his appearance. He made a move to shake my hand, a gesture which I returned. Tennis was like second nature to me, so, by the time that I came to, the match was starting and he was about to serve. I adjusted my body to the receiving position and started to rally with him before I felt Yukimura-buchou glaring at me; I could almost hear him scolding me. After my opponent scored the first point, I took some deep breaths to calm myself down. After doing so, I moved myself so I could receive the next serve. My mind had still been contemplating the idea that all of this was planned - that buchou wanted to make me win this all for a reason I couldn't understand. I mentally sighed. This wasn't the time for contemplation, this was a time for winning.   
  
Before I knew it, the referee called out, "Game to Echizen, 1 game to love!"   
  
I remembered watching Kato and Katsuo being slaughtered by the Doubles 1 pair and decided that I needed to win - but not for Yukimura-buchou. I was going to win this for them - and Sengoku. _2 - 0, 3 - 0, 4 - 0._ After I won my fourth consecutive game, my opponent chuckled, "You know, I was actually looking forward to playing you - but I think I would have more fun if one of my doubles pairs had actually lost."   
  
One of the Fudomine players shouted, "How can you say that, buchou?"   
  
My opponent glared at his teammate and said, "Rigged matches are no fun at all." Then he turned towards me and said, "Let's just finish this game. I'll play you seriously without all the spectators watching."   
  
I glared at my opponent and said, "Mada mada dane." I quickly won the next game with return aces. Before I began my next service game, I said, "I looked forward to playing you, too," I took a deep breath and raised my voice, "but Sengoku must not lose!" I hit my Twist Serve, hoping that he'd let it pass him. It was wishful thinking on my part because he returned it easily. Then, I started hitting it low and towards the baseline which eventually made him lob the ball; I showed off my Cyclone Smash - something that most people probably couldn't return anyway - and scored the next point. I scored the next two points without really having to show off any special moves. I wasn't about to let anyone see my father's signature Samurai Zone that was practically unbreakable. That would be saved for the Nationals, mostly for the matches against Rikkaidai and Seigaku if both manage to qualify.   
  
I ended the game with a well-placed smash and the referee called out, "Game and match to Echizen, 6 games to love!"   
  
We moved to shake one another's hands. He said to me, "I look forward to playing you seriously in the future."   
  
I gave him a pointed look and said, "Only if I see you out on the street courts."   
  
He smiled and replied, "Oh, I'll be there."   
  
Kazuki-senpai and Tsubaki-fukubuchou both ended their matches swiftly - both with a final score of 6 - 0. I was a bit disappointed with the rest of the schools we faced, though. They were all so...weak. We easily crushed them, winning first place and the opportunity to participate in the District Tournament.   
  
The eight of us headed towards the exit only to be faced with the Seigaku regulars from middle school...and Sae. I walked up to them and asked, "Why are you guys here?"   
  
Kikumaru-senpai answered excitedly, "Fujiko-chan told us you were playing today so we came to cheer for you!" He crossed his arms and whined, "You should have told us earlier, ochibi! We would have tried to finish our tournament faster."   
  
I bluntly replied, "We already won."   
  
Momo-senpai yelled in shock, "Seriously?! But it started only an hour ago!"   
  
I folded my arms and snorted at him, "Che. They were weak!" I turned towards Sae and asked, "What are you doing here?"   
  
She crossed her arms and pouted, "I came to cheer for you too! Mou, why'd you have to win so fast?"   
  
Inui-senpai muttered, "Ii data." He quickly jotted some things into his notebook.   
  
Yukimura-buchou gave him a cross look, "What are you writing?"   
  
Inui-senpai adjusted his glasses and said, "I don't give data to enemies."   
  
Yukimura-buchou pursed his lips and then said, "In that case, you and your team should stay away from Echizen."   
  
Fuji-senpai decided to cut into the conversation, with eyes wide open, "I have no reason to listen to you."   
  
Yukimura-buchou simply stared at him and said, "Echizen plays for Sengoku now."   
  
Fuji-senpai replied, "He only joined Sengoku to get away from fangirls - and to avoid two other people who almost broke him."   
  
My eyes widened in shock and I screamed, "Urusai, Fuji-senpai!"   
  
Fuji-senpai chuckled and ruffled my hair, "Maa, maa, Ryoma-kun...I won't say anything else."   
  
Yukimura-buchou raised his voice at me, "Get over here, Echizen!"   
  
Kato walked up to Yukimura-buchou and said, "Fuji-senpai won't do anything bad to Ryoma-kun. Ryoma-kun's practically his little brother!"   
  
A female voice startled all of us, "What is going on here?"   
  
Fuji-senpai smiled and greeted her, "Konnichiwa, nee-san."   
  
She smiled back and asked, "Syuusuke, what's taking so long?" Then she crossed her arms and said, "I thought you said that we would be taking Ryoma-chan out to celebrate when they won, so why are you distracting them?"   
  
I said to her, "We already won, Yumiko-nee."   
  
She laughed, "Well, that certainly explains why you're all gathered around here - but what was with all the yelling?"   
  
Katsuo walked up to her and said, "Ano, Fuji-san, Yukimura-buchou was just telling senpai-tachi to stay away from Ryoma-kun since the three of us play for Sengoku."   
  
Yumiko-nee glared at Yukimura-buchou and growled, "You did, what?!"   
  
Yukimura-buchou replied, "I told them to stay away from Echizen. They have no business associating with him."   
  
Yumiko-nee chortled, "That would make sense if they were simply his senpais, but some of them are really important to Ryoma."   
  
He responded, "I had no intention of keeping Kaidoh-kun away. He's related to Echizen's best friend, so contact with him is inevitable."   
  
Yumiko-nee looked at him and said, "Syuusuke is one of the only people Ryoma-chan actually talks to about his problems. Ryoma-chan is a growing boy; no matter how closed off he may act, his emotions do affect how he plays. Forcing him to stay away from Syuusuke could possibly make him _lose_ matches - and I know for a fact that when you enrolled in Sengoku, you basically made it law that Sengoku must never lose!"   
  
Yukimura-buchou finally relented, "Fine. Those two and I mean, ONLY, those two can keep contact with him. I have no intention of being the reason Echizen can't concentrate on a match." (4)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) - I have no idea what the name of the venue of the district preliminaries was in canon, so I just picked a name that sounded decent. I thought about having it at the tennis garden from the first episode, but I changed my mind. If I actually named a real tennis park from the series, it was a complete coincidence. If I accidentally named a tennis park created in another fanfiction, please tell me and I'll give full credit.  
> (2) - I'm making them face Fudomine in the preliminaries simply because I don't like them much, and if I don't get rid of them now - I'll have to write them in eventually, and it might be more than once. Tachibana Kippei is alright, but he's not with the high school...he'll be coming in way later.  
> (3) - Yukimura's a manipulative bastard, yes. However, he is by no means a bad person. He's obsessed with winning and that resulted in his desire to destroy his opponents. In his mind, crushing Fudomine's high school team ensures that Sengoku will not be troubled by them in the future. He intends to scare his opponents into forfeiting in future years. Keep in mind that Yukimura never played against Fudomine in canon. I'll also tell you right now that he would not have chosen Fudomine to be the team he'd crush this year if Tachibana was around. He respects Tachibana too much for that - but he's not there, and he won't be for a long time.  
> (4) - I really hope no one expected me to actually go through with forcing all of Seigaku to stay away from Ryoma. I do have reasons for why I'm making it so that only Kaidoh and Fuji can keep in contact with Ryoma, but I have no intention of revealing them. All I'll say is that it has something to do with a certain viper's cousin, and Yukimura wants to do away with problems regarding her before letting anyone else from Seigaku come in. I'll give away the rest of the freshman arc if I say anything else.
> 
> For those of you wondering about Sanada, I don't know whether or not he'll becoming in any time soon. As far as I'm concerned, he's still with Rikkaidai. I'm not mean enough to have Yukimura relapse just so I could get them to reconcile - because we all know Sanada would track him down to the ends of the earth if the disease came back. Keep watch for Rikkaidai's devil though, he'll be a recurring character soon (You didn't think I'd keep out his boytoy AND his baby, did you?) - might also play apart in Sengoku's Ice Princess finally opening up.


End file.
